Started this morning feeling kinda blah about all those sappy quote accounts online. You know the ones – same ten quotes recycled forever with cheesy sunset pics. So I grabbed my old camera and decided to make something real. No filters, no keyboard warrior stuff.
The Plan
Simple: hike up Top Mountain summit, bring five paper signs with actual powerful love quotes from legit authors, and photograph ’em right there in the dirt and wind. Raw stuff. Hemingway, Austen, Morrison – the heavy hitters.
Step One: Print Nightmare: Woke up early, fired up the printer. Thing jammed twice. Ran outta black ink halfway through printing Toni Morrison’s quote. Ended up scribbling the last two lines with a busted marker I found in my junk drawer. Looked messy. Went with it anyway.
Step Two: Gear Chaos: Threw the wrinkled paper signs into my backpack alongside two granola bars and a questionable bottle of water. Forgot my fancy tripod. Figured I’d balance the camera on rocks. Genius.
Step Three: The Climb (aka The Suffering): Got to the trailhead by 9 AM. Mistake. Sun was already baking. Halfway up, a sign fluttered outta my backpack. Saw Maya Angelou’s words face-down in the mud. Nice. Scooped it up, wiped it semi-clean on my jeans. Legs felt like jelly climbing that last steep bit.
The Real Work Up Top
Reached the summit sweaty and annoyed. Wind was whipping hard – perfect for “authentic,” right? Tried positioning Hemingway’s sign:
- First spot: Too much shadow. Looked like a ransom note.
- Second spot: Wind caught it. Chased the damn paper like a cartoon. Almost lost it down the cliff.
- Third spot: Sat on a boulder, pinning the sign between my knees. Shot it. Looks gritty. Done.
Did the same dance with Austen. Found a cracked rock to lean it against. Wind actually helped give it that torn look. Morrison’s sign, my half-printed scribbled mess? Dropped it near some scrubby bushes. The roughness felt right.
Camera Hassle: Balancing my camera on uneven rocks was a joke. One gust nearly sent it flying. Ended up holding it low, half-crouched on dirt-stained knees, clicking blind most times. Weird angles everywhere.
Why bother? Truth? Got dumped last month. Been scrolling through fake-perfect quotes feeling worse. Needed to literally climb something and plant words that felt true, even if they hurt. Placing those quotes on rocks, getting dirt under my nails, sweating like hell… that felt more real than any app ever could.
Bottom Line
Came down with muddy shoes, sweat-soaked shirt, and 23 blurry photos. Maybe two or three look decent. Quotes are scuffed, wrinkled, imperfect. Totally sucked doing it. But finally? I feel a bit lighter. Those authors knew pain. Standing where they might’ve stood, wrestling their words against the wind… well, it beats another night on the sofa scrolling. Find words that scrape you raw. Then go get dirty with ’em.