If I didn’t have these images to flip through, there would be so much left out of my memory. My pictures help me reconnect without having to think too hard.

These were taken just as the weather started to get cold. One of the last warm days before being mostly stuck indoors. After Atem got his line at the museum ledges, we drove back home to Brooklyn cackling about learning tricks at the skatepark only to then film it at a street spot. I guess that really is how kids do it these days. All of us were joking about how we wouldn’t skate over the next few months, which luckily was only half true. I skated through this winter without going into an indoor park. Anything is possible.

My cousin AJ helped me out with a documentary short I’m making. That’s his red Corolla on the drive up to Massachusetts. And him enjoying a buffalo chicken mac ‘n’ cheese from Veggie Galaxy I was hyping up on our drive back.

“It’s beast,” he said after one bite with a full mouth.

My brothers and I joke that AJ is the “Bad Karma Kid” because shit happens to him. Years ago, while he was at Rutgers, he parked his car on campus, partied late, and slept at his friend’s house. The next morning, every car parked overnight in the lot was fine except his, which had one of the side mirrors kicked out. It was dangling by a wire.

And that’s not even his best story.