Recently, I bought these old magazines. I was about to leave the thrift store free handed but a big pile of old National Geographic caught my eye. I walked over and inspected them carefully. The iconic yellow cover was faded and sometimes a small bit torn, the pages inside though, they were perfect, vintage and everything a crafty girl like me could want. Obviously, I get up from my crouching position on the ground and take three with me. I pay for them, maybe 7$, and I go back to my house happily while flipping through the pages. Old images from the 70s and hairstyles that would make people these days laugh, those magazines didn't age like fine wine. But when I looked at them, I felt a sense of nostalgia.

I never lived in the 70s nor the 80s or even the 90s, but seeing old photos and reading through this magazine that someone probably spent their entire day writing, I felt sad. Someone wrote this, girl or boy, far away on the other side of the calendar, someone nonetheless, they wrote this. Nowadays, nobody knows or cares about who wrote the July 1970 national geographic. But back then, I can imagine a boy in his 30s who got asked to write this, he was probably so excited to be in a big magazine. The emotions he felt are gone now, and so are most of the copies of that magazine.

All this to say that it made me realize something I thought I had spent my entire life knowing, but I never really realized: everything you do is infinite. People like to tell you that whatever you do or say doesn't matter because you live once and then you are forgotten, but I don't think that's true. On the contrary actually, whatever you do will last forever. Whether it is stopping someone on the street to compliment their smile or a concert you've been to, those moments will stay with you forever. If you make someone a birthday card or you knit a sweater, those items will hold sentiments and memories that the void couldn't replace.

So do what you want and don't be scared of not having an impact, because even the smallest of acts will stay with someone for longer than you think. Leaving a legacy doesn't have to be a big act that heals the entire world, a legacy can be a memory or a small piece of art. And maybe someone in fifty years will find your magazine in a thrift store and bring it home thinking it is the coolest thing ever.