Think Twice

Hello. So for any of you who don't know (or who didn't notice my facebook status), my purse got stolen this past Saturday. It was stolen from a room that was supposed to be locked outside of the laser tag arena at Nickel City. You see, when you go to play laser tag, you are taken into the room where you get your gun/vest and the attendant tells you to leave your stuff under the rack that you take your vest from. They tell you this every time. They tell you this because they then proceed to lock the door and stay in that room until your game is over. Unfortunately for me, the girl that was running laser tag that night was apparently a complete idiot and let some girls in to look for their "cigarettes" in the middle of our game. After they looked, they took my purse. I can only hope that girl was fired for her idiocy. But the point of this post is not whose fault it was or how it played out. The point is, there are some people out there who think that stealing is a good idea. I could not tell you why they think that. Maybe they grew up in such a situation where stealing was not demonized as it should be. Maybe they are trying to impress friends. Maybe they desperately need money for whatever reason. Maybe they just have no soul. I really don't know. But when you steal something, think about this: how will that affect the person you're stealing from? I know that if you're stealing someone's stuff, you've probably dehumanized that person anyway so as to not feel guilty. But really, consider this:

My purse contained the following:
-Keys to my car and house (including a little teddy bear keychain I got from New York when I went there with my family over Christmas break)
-My wallet (including not just my cash and bank cards, but a whole host of other cards, including my temple reccommend and a mini diploma sent to me by BYU. Also, I guarantee I'll never find another wallet like that one. It was my favorite I'd had in a long time)
-My cell phone (including many photos that I had not downloaded on to my computer; notes about photoshoots, books I wanted to read, ideas I'd had, etc.; my calendar, which is basically my brain; and all my work schedules)
-My iPod (lovingly named Fred II after my first iPod, Fred, who died of natural causes)
-Various lipsticks, chapsticks, and a necklace that I had just rediscovered
-And last and possibly worst, my camera (which I had owned for seven years, which contained recently-taken photos, and which I could still take better photos with than most people can with their fancy new cameras, even though it was so old and only 6 megapixels. It was the best point and shoot ever. That was my FIRST digital camera. Knowing I'm a photographer, equate that to me losing a beloved pet.)

So, aside from looking at the actual items stolen (amounting to over $1000 worth in losses), look at the memories that were stolen from me. But of course, the thief never would have thought of that. Because if you are so depraved as to steal someone's belongings, then you are probably past feeling anything about anyone besides yourself. So I just wanted to say that if any of you are for some reason considering stealing something from someone, or if you are ever tempted, just take a second and think twice about it. Not only are you breaking the law. Not only are you demoralizing yourself. But you are hurting someone. And you never know how that will affect them. Luckily for me, most of those things can be replaced, and eventually, I'm sure the hurt suffered at the loss of those memories and precious things to me will heal. But say my circumstances had been different. Say that camera had been given to me by someone now gone, whose photos on that camera had been all that I'd had left of them. Maybe that's a little extreme, but you get the idea. You never know how you're hurting someone. So, thieves, wherever you are, I invite you to rethink your life choices.

And if I ever see you again in real life, you'd better be fast runners.