For whom do you scrapbook?

For whom do you scrapbook? Of course, any answer you give here is the appropriate one. We all scrap for our own reasons:

• For my kids: So they will be reminded of the details of their childhood and never question that they were loved.
• For myself: So that I won’t forget what’s important in my life.
• For myself: So that when I’m older I’ll remember the details of my own life.
• For my descendants: So that future generations will know about how we lived our lives.
• For myself: To give expression to my inner world.
• For myself: Because I love to create.
• For my family: To celebrate the high points/milestones of my family’s life.
• For myself: To express my spirituality and give thanks to God.
• For my mental health: To journal about life’s struggles.
• For myself: To get to play with pretty paper and embellishments.
• For myself: It’s a way of being with my friends, who all scrap together.
• For myself: It’s me time.
• For myself: I love hobbies. Period.
• For myself: I love being part of the online community of scrapbookers.
• For myself: So that I can exercise my competitive side and enter challenges.
• For my family: My mom/sister/aunt/babysitter got me into it, and I’ve just always done it.
• For myself: I love to tell family stories. Or any stories.
• For myself: It completes me.

And of course, the list could go on and on. It’s all quite individual.

As you can see from the list I generated above, I think most of it boils down to the fact that we do it for ourselves. It fuels our creative souls. It gives us a reason to get together with friends who share the hobby. It makes us feel good about the stories we can pass along to our children. It gives us a reason to shop without having to try on clothes that make us feel bad about ourselves ;-).

A few years ago I was home visiting my family in North Carolina, and I badgered my mother until she caved in and let me take down the heritage family photos hanging on her wall to scan for scrapping. I love scrapping old photos of the family. But it took some real wheedling, cajoling and outright harping on my mother to convince her that disturbing her carefully crafted arrangement of framed photos was worthwhile. During our “conversation” about why I wanted to do this and why it was important to preserve these photos digitally and then tell their stories, my mom asked me the big question. “Why do you even scrapbook since you don’t have children to pass them down to?” (Between you and me, I think she’s a tad bothered that she doesn’t have grandchildren yet, and she loves a chance to get in a little reminder.)

Oh no she dinnit!

But good came from her question that at first had shocked me. I love how our brains work in these situations because I had never put into words why I loved to scrapbook, but I was able to immediately form a response for Mom that went something a little like this. “People without children have just as much reason to scrap as parents. They have histories and presents that have meaning for them and are worth preserving…if only for them. But I also get immense satisfaction out of the creative process involved. And someday, if I have children, they’ll have my scrapbooks to help them learn about their great grandparents’, grandparents’ and parents’ lives before they existed.”

So there! Not really, but it did feel good to have the answer for her question. It had been in my subconscious all along, I guess, just waiting for the challenge. The bottom line is that I scrapbook for myself.

Well, I honestly don’t know if my response convinced Mom or if she just capitulated to shut me up. But I answered a question that was important to me and got to scan those heritage photos on her wall. Score!

I’m curious, how many of you have one big reason for scrapping? Have you articulated it for yourself? Have you ever had to defend your reasons to a “scuggle” (non-scrapbook folk) (that’s for my fellow Harry Potter fans)? For me, having to justify it to someone else made me see why I do it and how much it adds to my life. Thanks Mom.

Note: This post of mine came about because I just read a great post at Scrapbook Obsession about the very topic, and it got me thinking about my perspective on it. I realize that the date on this post is one day off; I’m working with my provider to figure out what’s going on with the server.