Old friends and memories
So, when I was a kid I was totally one of those that saved everything. Literally, shoeboxes of stuff - newspaper clippings, notes, pictures, cards, programs, tickets...
All of this stuff has, over the years, piled up in a shelf unit in my bedroom. I've known for a while that I needed to go through and weed things out because there's a lot of crap that is pretty pointless for me to hang onto. So, I started to go through things tonight since I couldn't sleep.
It's kind of amazing and strange going back and finding things and people that you've forgotten about completely. There are pen pals that had totally fallen out of my memory, contests I'd forgotten I'd participated in...hell, things that I'd forgotten about myself and what I used to think. It's funny to look back and see what I wanted to do with my life when I was 12 or what I wrote to my friends when I was 16. I like though that the thing that seems to never change is the way friends and I interact. While the friends may not always stay the same, there is a definite thru-line of the type of people I hang out with. I never went through a 'goth' or 'preppy' phase or anything. So it's pretty steadily been the same type of people that I've hung out with. There's a strange sort of comfort in that.
In the last couple of hours I've thrown out Scholastic Bowl schedules, MathCounts awards, endless birthday and Christmas cards, milk tickets, hall passes, Valentine's Day cards...
But there was a pile of stuff that I just couldn't make myself toss much of anything out of - my basketball stuff from gradeschool is going to stay around for a long long time it seems. When people talk about leaving their hearts on a field or court or stage...wherever it may be...that was the time when I did it. I left so much of myself out there. And I miss those feelings so much sometimes. My team was my family. My coach was my bestfriend's dad. It's just hard to get rid of things like that. I mean, it took me a minute to toss a washcloth with my number in permanent marker on it...guess I'm a little crazy.
Somehow though, all of this makes the transition into real life a little bit less scary.
All of this stuff has, over the years, piled up in a shelf unit in my bedroom. I've known for a while that I needed to go through and weed things out because there's a lot of crap that is pretty pointless for me to hang onto. So, I started to go through things tonight since I couldn't sleep.
It's kind of amazing and strange going back and finding things and people that you've forgotten about completely. There are pen pals that had totally fallen out of my memory, contests I'd forgotten I'd participated in...hell, things that I'd forgotten about myself and what I used to think. It's funny to look back and see what I wanted to do with my life when I was 12 or what I wrote to my friends when I was 16. I like though that the thing that seems to never change is the way friends and I interact. While the friends may not always stay the same, there is a definite thru-line of the type of people I hang out with. I never went through a 'goth' or 'preppy' phase or anything. So it's pretty steadily been the same type of people that I've hung out with. There's a strange sort of comfort in that.
In the last couple of hours I've thrown out Scholastic Bowl schedules, MathCounts awards, endless birthday and Christmas cards, milk tickets, hall passes, Valentine's Day cards...
But there was a pile of stuff that I just couldn't make myself toss much of anything out of - my basketball stuff from gradeschool is going to stay around for a long long time it seems. When people talk about leaving their hearts on a field or court or stage...wherever it may be...that was the time when I did it. I left so much of myself out there. And I miss those feelings so much sometimes. My team was my family. My coach was my bestfriend's dad. It's just hard to get rid of things like that. I mean, it took me a minute to toss a washcloth with my number in permanent marker on it...guess I'm a little crazy.
Somehow though, all of this makes the transition into real life a little bit less scary.