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Your Professional Superpowers Are Gathering Dust

Converting the buried treasures you already possess.

Mike Curtis
The You Design System
8 min read6 days ago

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40 rolls of 8mm film sitting on a wooden table next to an old, metal green box
Image by the author

I recently had one of those experiences that gives you goosebumps and connects you to your past in a way you never expected.

There they were, spread across my kitchen table, over 40 reels of 8mm film, meticulously labeled with dates and events spanning the late 1960s through the early 80s. “Xmas ‘67,” “Summer ‘73,” “Easter ‘79,” “Back Yard,” “July ‘75” — little 50 ft. time capsules that had been sitting quietly in a green metal box at my parents’ house for decades.

The crazy part was that my mom had been holding onto these treasures all these years. But without a film projector, they remained locked away. Physically locked away, of course, but also locked away from our family’s collective memory. My older sisters appear in most of them, my brother and I in a few as toddlers, but none of us had ever seen this footage.

“Dang it, Mom!” I laughed when I realized what she’d been keeping from us.

Not intentionally, of course. She simply didn’t have the means to share them.

But, thanks to modern technology, I enlisted a local company to convert them to digital video. The…

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The You Design System
The You Design System

Published in The You Design System

Helping businesses & individuals apply their UX skills to how they’re experienced by other people. Mike Curtis, Sr. UX Designer and author of The You Design System, has 21 years of experience in design, UX, marketing, e-commerce & sales.

Mike Curtis
Mike Curtis

Written by Mike Curtis

Senior UX Designer / New articles weekly on design & self-improvement / Helping you design the "UX of You" / 22+ years in design, marketing, & sales.

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