Part II
During my time working at a medical office, one of my co-workers shared with me a small cut-out picture that hung on an old over-used cork board perpendicular to her desk. The picture seemed to be from a magazine or travel brochure, and at least a few years old. It was a picture of one of the most beautiful island I have ever seen. An island that would’ve likely made it’s debut in a late night travel show or on a list of top must see places around the world. There was glistening white sand, crystal clear water and a few sun kissed palm trees strategically arranged, as if they had rehearsed their pose for that single photograph. It was breathtaking and in a way magical.
Once in a while, during the most stressful of times at the office, my co-worker would stare at the small image for just a few seconds. Just enough to allow her imagination to take over and replace the reality of her day with a few minutes in paradise. She would take one look at the image on the cork board and it was as if a smile sprouted from within her and progressively made it’s way from her thoughts to her eyes and and down to her cheeks. It was something so un-natual to me but somehow, for that one moment the picture had the power to change her from the inside out. She became a different person. Not with different circumstances surrounding her, but with a new outlook on her circumstances. In a matter of seconds, the person she once was, transformed before my eyes.
I never truly understood how it happened until I found a cut out picture of my own….
Puerto Rico. Summer of 2011
