On the one hand, it feels like cheating to include a childhood photo here. No matter how bad it is, nobody judges a person harshly for bad childhood pictures. It is thoroughly safe territory.
But I cannot tell you how tremendously embarassed I was of the photo the moment I first saw it after it was developed. I recall that when I took the picture I thought it would be neat to have an "artist face." Which, at that tender age, I imagined meant looking insufferably smug. I hated this picture intensely for years because of that.
Here we go. No kid stuff this time. Teenaged Nick leaning against the door trying to look suave in pyjama pants. Laundry on one side of him, Anime and Star Wars novels on the right. So sexy.
I wore that tuft on my chin for so many years. It was such a mistake. Also, very clearly trying to look cool and badass once again in pyjama pants and bare feet.
I do not understand what I thought I had to be smug about.
Jumping forward 10+ years from the last picture, this one at least is intentionally bad. Though my goodness my teeth are so much more yellow than they ought to be.
—Nick LS Whelan
March 15, 2021