A couple years ago I was digging around in my parents room.
I honestly don’t remember what it was that I was looking for, and I don’t remember if I found it, but I stumbled across something else.
There was a big clunky case in one of the drawers I looked inside. It looked like a camera case. I opened it and then decided to asked my dad what it was.
He was shocked and pleased at my discovery. It was my parents’ old camcorder. We opened up the case and found two tapes. One had a paper on it labeled, “Gracie Beth’s First Year”. This was obviously for my sister. We popped it inside the camcorder and watched the tape for two hours.
My apetite for the videos wasn’t settled by the first tape, so I put the second one in. I was even more excited for this tape because of the hope I had that this tape would include me. I know that sounds self centered, but I had never seen any videos of my family or past self before the first tape, all we’ve ever had is pictures (which is in part due to the fact that a hacker locked all of our family pictures and videos). The thought of being able to see myself was so exciting!
The tape immediately froze and the words, “EJECT CASSETTE” appeared on the screen. I opened the camcorder and my dad took the tape out. While he was inspecting the tape we both heard a noise. My dad lowered his head and I peaked. He had ripped the tape. We sadly put the cassette away and left it in a cupboard for a couple of years.
That of course, was until a couple of days ago. I randomly thought of the mystery cassette. I took it upon myself to fix what was broken, with the comforting fact that I couldn’t make it any worse (I mean I could, but it was already broken and couldn’t play, so if it wasn’t successful then it wasn’t a big deal).
I looked through some tutorials on YouTube, but every single one recommended cutting off the wrinkly part of the tape. I didn’t really want to do this, since that would mean cutting off some memories. I decided to stray from the tutorials and fixed the tape my own way.
First I had to find a screwdriver small enough to fit inside of the cassette case. After doing this I unscrewed everything and exposed the tape itself. I held back the piece that restricts the gears and pulled out pieces of tape. I straightened the tape as much as possible and then used clear tape to just tape it back together. I put everything back into order and then rescrewed the case.
I put the tape inside of the camcorder and held my breath as it rewinded. The tape worked! It started out with videos of my sister during Christmas of 2003. I watched through January of 2004, my heart racing knowing that I would be important soon. Suddenly the tape jumped to January of 2007. The last clip of the tape played.
Yes, I was a little disheartened that that was it, but I was still happy that it was something. I really cherish that minute long glimpse into the past. Not only that, but I fixed it myself!
Overall, I’m happy with my method of fixing the tape. Using my creativity I was able to save the only clip of myself on the tape. I was also able to do something for my parents, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to see those things again.
The Cons of Writing 