Of Bologna Sandwiches, Eggplants, and "Clowns": My Unfiltered Memories

​Have you ever stopped to think about what your best memories are made of? If we analyze them under a microscope, most of the time, the setting blurs out and only the emotion remains.

​Today I’ve been thinking about this. I don't know if it's because the calm has finally arrived after the madness of the holidays and one starts to take stock, or simply because I have a brutal cold. And of course, since I’m a bundle of nerves and a danger when I'm not doing something, my head hasn't stopped inventing and rewinding.

​Whatever the reason, I stopped to review everything I've done this year. And it has been crazy. I've traveled like a beast, met up with so many people, done everything... But when trying to capture those memories, I couldn't stop smiling as I realized what has really stuck in my mind.

​It’s not the monuments, nor the perfect landscapes. It’s moments. Flashes of laughter, emotion, and pure joy.

​I close my eyes and see myself in London with my best friends, stuck in a heavy metal dive bar drinking a beer. Or that uncontrollable laughter while eating some "I don't know what" on the street, simply because they gave us no other option.

​And I remember that moment when I saw my friends fulfill their dream of having their house on the beach. But I don't remember the walls or the views; I remember the overflowing emotion in their gazes and the glassy shine in their eyes shouting "we did it."

​I have that conversation engraved in my mind, dressed in designer clothes while eating a bologna sandwich, with the perfect excuse: "eat this one, if it falls it won't stain, you little piggy."

​The images crowd together: searching for mummies in a museum where (spoiler) there are no mummies. That coffee in that weird cafeteria that no one can explain how it stays in business. Or that unbeatable feeling of opening the door home after a trip and seeing my dog's face.

​This year has been the year of the innocence of my two crazy nephews. Of barbecues playing bingo (yes, bingo). Of that party night in Barbate and that impulse to run out and dance to Bon Jovi like there was no tomorrow. And also, the simple pleasure of getting home and dropping dead on the sofa.

​But above all, it has been a year of laughter. Laughter, laughter, and more laughter.

Of eyes flooded with emotion in those I love most. Of confessions, of dancing like a fool. Of phrases that get tattooed on you like a sincere "You know? I love you so much."

​Or the inside jokes that only we understand: "You are so annoying," "Porca miseria!", or that affectionate "let me tell you something, you clown." That surreal "Javi, why is this guy sending me so many eggplant emojis?", or that critique of total artistic trust: "Don't you think you went overboard painting freckles on me?" and that eternal "You don't fit in the suit" (hahaha).

​It's curious, very curious. Despite having been to wonderful places, those typical perfect Instagram photo spots, the moments I didn't want to photograph are the ones burned into my memory. The ones where I wanted to live the instant and not the surroundings.

​I’ll stick with the persons.

I’ll stick with the gazes.

I’ll stick with the light they radiated.

​And now I ask you: if you close your eyes right now, what is that imperfect moment, that "stain" of authentic happiness from this year that you wouldn't trade for any postcard photo?