20 - One Second Every Day

As my 20^th birthday approached, my cousin showed me a video he found on Ted Talks. The speaker is director Cesar Kuriyama, and in his talk he explained his project he called “One Second Every Day.” If you want to see the video of that talk, here is the link. The idea of the project is to capture one second of every day and create a running stream of those little moments that make up our lives. Cesar says that life moves by so quickly that memories and moments become a blur, and to hang on to those individual memories he records them. Rather than recording the whole event, he just captures a brief instant that triggers the whole memory around that moment.

I was intrigued, and decided to start my own project. I was about to start a brand new decade, and I wanted to remember as much of it as I could. So beginning with my 20^th birthday, I began taking a video every day. One year later, here is the finished product.

Link to my video

Cesar's rules were to have each clip last only one second, have only one video per day, and recording only from the first person perception. It didn't take long to bend and break those rules. Cesar didn't want to emphasize some moments more than others, but there were days and moments that I enjoyed so much that I didn't want to limit it to just one second or one video. I also enjoyed seeing the third person view points, and I didn't want to restrict this project to only what I saw.

I was instantly amazed at how this project changed my perspective on things. I began each day with the thought of “what do I want to remember about today.” I relished significant events, but also started seeing the value in the smaller moments that can get lost in a routine. In an effort to create great clips, I wanted to go out and do things rather than wait for things to happen. And as the project got older, I loved the mosaic of moments that it painted. I was also impressed at how much more I could remember just by looking back at the video. It's exiting to think that I can use this video to recall what life was like at age 20 even years from now.

Now I'll be honest, there are days that do not appear in this video. I would sometimes find myself feeling awkward filming a moment I liked or would be too caught up in something to remember to capture it. Other days I would simply forget or be unsatisfied with the day's video, so there are gaps in the project. I regretted missing days because if felt like I had lost an opportunity to make a memory.

I will absolutely continue the video on into my 21^st year. Don't be creeped out if you notice me filming something – I'm not totally crazy.

Cesar finishes his talk by challenging people to start their own project, and I am going to do the same. I loved doing this project because it is simply the life you create. So start creating!