A mirror selfie. Who would have guessed?

To most of you, this won't seem like anything special. It's just a mirror selfie, you might say. But to me, it was an accomplishment. You see, until recently, I was completely clueless about these things. I've seen many of them out on social media, and I've always wondered what the point was. Finally, one day last week, a friend posted one of these, and rather than wondering any longer, I texted Shulamith. Our text thread went something like this:

Me: Why do people keep taking pictures of themselves holding up their phones like they're taking a selfie, except they can't be because their phone is in the picture?

Shulamith: I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Me: Yes you have! People do it all the time. Go look at Angela's wall right now, for example.

Shulamith: Mom! They're taking a picture in the mirror. It's when people want to take a full-body selfie.

Me: So they're actually taking a picture of themselves?

Shulamith: Yes, silly!

Me: Which way do they face in the mirror if they want to do that?

Shulamith: Which way do you think?

Me: Probably backwards?

Shulamith: Yeah, if you want to take a picture of your butt.

Me: My brain can't process it. If you face the mirror, which way do you position the camera? Regular or selfie mode? Never mind. It's all too confusing.

At this point, the whole thread transferred to our group family chat thread.

Amanda: Haha!

Shulamith: I'm making her take a mirror selfie tomorrow.

Amanda: Oh good. Education is good.

Me: There might be a blog post here. Maybe.

Next post was a mirror selfie of Shulamith when she was maybe seven months' pregnant with Kennedy.

Eli: It's called a "mirror pic" Mom. Get with the times. They were super popular before cell phones and selfie cameras. It was the only way to take a picture of yourself while looking at the picture.

Shulamith: Hahaha, exactly. She's talking like this is all a new thing from the past few months.

Me: I am ALWAYS with the times. Don't you worry about that. But this whole mirror thing is totally confusing. I think you need to be more visual to understand it.

Shulamith: No, mirrors have been around a long time.

Gerald: Even St. Paul referred to a mirror in his letter to the Corinthians.

Me: "Now I see through a glass, darkly." One of my favorite scriptures!

Next came numerous mirror photos of Eli from way back in high school, which he was somehow able to access instantly.

Gerald: True. I was confirming Shulamith's comment that mirrors have been around for a long time.

Shualmith: Hahahahaha yes!!! You look so young, Eli.

Shulamith: Why are you holding up your phone in that picture, Eli? So weird.

Me: Yes, Eli. These! They've never made any sense to me. Which is why I asked you in the first place. I always thought people were just pretending to take pictures of themselves, which seemed so ridiculous.

Me: And just look at my adorable Eli!

Eli: You're funny, Mom.

So the following day, I tried to take my first mirror selfie. It's so hard. Like seriously hard. The picture above is the best I could do after 14 tries. I really don't think I'll do this again, but I'm glad I finally understand the whole deal, and that I have such an adorable little family to help me.