Debate Tub and old memories....
Since my car is no longer drivable, I had to clean it out. Now this may not seem like a huge ordeal but for me it was. I basically lived out of my car for the past 2 years. It started the summer after my junior year of college when I was communting back and forth b/w MTP and GR. This is when the build up began. There was always at least 3 pairs of shoes in there. Just in case I ended up somewhere and was in need of different shoes. This came in handy this summer when I went camping and it started pouring, luckily I could switch out of my tenny shoes into sandals. I also had random clothing in there. A tee-shirt, sweater, tank, jeans...etc. You just never know. I mean come on you all know me, I do random shit sometimes.
For example, one night I was walking past a party to my car to get more beer, clearly not completely sober and there were people slip and sliding. Im not talking little kid, hook up the hose to the slide, but down a huge, massive hill. You covered yourself in laundry soap and then they poured a bucket of water down the slide when you ran and jumped onto the slide. I personally could not contain my excitement and joined in. I was completly covered in laundry soap, grass, mud and soaked to the bone. To some this would be the end of their night, not for me. My friend Courtney and I changed our clothes and continued partying. Thank god, my car was full of random things.
So anyways, back to the point of this story. My car has been through a lot of things w/ me, two serious relationships, a debate career, college, many friends and adventures. I found rememants of all these things in my car. Old pics of past loves, cards from friends, tickets to movies, caps to exotic beer we tried and wanted to keep in order to prove to others we drank it, sweatshirts/t-shirts stolen by kourt and i and finally, my debate tub.
While the other things were enough on their own to keep me remencing for hours, my debate tub brought me to tears. Im wasn't really sure why. I thought it would be a good idea to clean it out, and maybe use it for something else. But then as I sat there flipping thru file after file, I just found myself unable to throw any of them away. They all represented more to me than just a piece of paper w/ evi on them. They were the arguements that my friends got in over which card was best, the stories we told while cutting, the time and prep we put into trying to become the best. There were handwritten notes on the outside of manilla folders, "i love you", "i cant believe hes in finals", "what the hell is she wearing". Just to reference a few. I saw the 7 folders of the names of the people who were in octos at nationals last year. Remembering that I was the other folder.
I just couldnt do it. I couldnt just throw away 4 years of hard work. Files that were written by Kristen, Boyer, Russ, Theresa, Paul, Deb, Kourt, myself and even one little DA from rob;) All those backfiles that I bet went back a good 10 years or more. That may not matter to anyone else, but they still mattered to me. I looked at the 4 years worth of ways we wrote and rewrote FISM and Spending DAs. Laughing at the tags on cards. Crying at all the little notes from a past love. There were 4 years worth of memorable moments, moments that I never want to forget. So I will keep my box, although it looks different after 4 years of experience, it still reminds me that sometimes in life its better to be a part of something. Even though we didn't really change the world thru debating, we changed eachother.....
For example, one night I was walking past a party to my car to get more beer, clearly not completely sober and there were people slip and sliding. Im not talking little kid, hook up the hose to the slide, but down a huge, massive hill. You covered yourself in laundry soap and then they poured a bucket of water down the slide when you ran and jumped onto the slide. I personally could not contain my excitement and joined in. I was completly covered in laundry soap, grass, mud and soaked to the bone. To some this would be the end of their night, not for me. My friend Courtney and I changed our clothes and continued partying. Thank god, my car was full of random things.
So anyways, back to the point of this story. My car has been through a lot of things w/ me, two serious relationships, a debate career, college, many friends and adventures. I found rememants of all these things in my car. Old pics of past loves, cards from friends, tickets to movies, caps to exotic beer we tried and wanted to keep in order to prove to others we drank it, sweatshirts/t-shirts stolen by kourt and i and finally, my debate tub.
While the other things were enough on their own to keep me remencing for hours, my debate tub brought me to tears. Im wasn't really sure why. I thought it would be a good idea to clean it out, and maybe use it for something else. But then as I sat there flipping thru file after file, I just found myself unable to throw any of them away. They all represented more to me than just a piece of paper w/ evi on them. They were the arguements that my friends got in over which card was best, the stories we told while cutting, the time and prep we put into trying to become the best. There were handwritten notes on the outside of manilla folders, "i love you", "i cant believe hes in finals", "what the hell is she wearing". Just to reference a few. I saw the 7 folders of the names of the people who were in octos at nationals last year. Remembering that I was the other folder.
I just couldnt do it. I couldnt just throw away 4 years of hard work. Files that were written by Kristen, Boyer, Russ, Theresa, Paul, Deb, Kourt, myself and even one little DA from rob;) All those backfiles that I bet went back a good 10 years or more. That may not matter to anyone else, but they still mattered to me. I looked at the 4 years worth of ways we wrote and rewrote FISM and Spending DAs. Laughing at the tags on cards. Crying at all the little notes from a past love. There were 4 years worth of memorable moments, moments that I never want to forget. So I will keep my box, although it looks different after 4 years of experience, it still reminds me that sometimes in life its better to be a part of something. Even though we didn't really change the world thru debating, we changed eachother.....