it's funny how many times i've gone through them during the years and thrown more stuff out. everytime i go to organize them, i do a huge dump of things i don't deem important enough to keep anymore. sometimes i'll look at something and shake my head thinking, "why the hell did i keep this?!?!?!"
mostly, my boxes are filled with pictures. tons and tons of pictures.
like when i was at cal state fullerton with my roomies and we would go to disneyland all.the.time. see, even then i was never without my camera. i took pics of everything. just ask my old roommates.
and old pictures of blake from when he was just a mini blake
i love my boxes from the past. they are a part of who i am today. it's always fun to go through them and see things that you have completely fogotten about and haven't thought about in years. for example.. apparently i liked to keep the notes that boys wrote me. (which doesn't really surprise me)
but um, note to all you boys/guys out there..
girls keep EVERYTHING.
FOREVER.
just in case you were wondering. that note you wrote her in high school a billion years ago?
she probably still has it.
and then i always find my pen pal letters.
yes, i had pen pals. it's all my best friend ali's fault (she started it). but the only letters i kept are the ones from my pen pal who died, annie. her mom and i wrote to eachother for a little bit after. she sent me some of her things and she also sent me all the letters i had written. so that's what those are- both of our letters to eachother. it was terribly sad at the time (not that it still isn't). i'm thankful for the letters. and grateful.
then i come across things like this -
and i remember that me and my roomies camped out in line overnight to go to president nixon's viewing and that we were all over the news and the newspapers that night and the next morning. i remember that the guy who took this picture of me and meli took about 4 rolls of pictures of us. like a freaking photoshoot. (you know i loved it) but that pic in that paper? it's freaking HUGE.
i laugh when i find my high school yearbooks and read the stupid shit that everyone writes to eachother. and i find some sort of sick comfort in knowing that if i wanted to find or talk to almost anyone from high school, all i have to do is go on facebook (except for john dalton, i swear that kid graduated from high school and disappeared- wtf!?!?)
my boxes hold the keys to my past in journal form. all my dream journals and my regular journals live in there.
i can't really look through and read them though cause they are ridiculously embarassing. i'm not sure why they haven't made it into the trash bin yet. probably because they aren't that old really. but it's hard to go back and read the things i wrote. i read everything and think "you're such an idiot" all the time.
all i know is that i'm a sentimental fuck. i remember people i met for an hour in an airport. or the most adorable couple ever on a garden tour one summer in new orleans. or the old man i had jury duty with who had no wife or kids of his own and i wanted him to adopt me so he could have family. sometimes i feel like i remember people who would never remember me in return. and i wonder if i'm the only one? or if i'm like that cause i'm a girl? or if i'm like that because i feel things so deeply?? or if lots of people remember the people they've met in passing...
i feel like i remember almost everyone i've ever encountered. and i sort of love that. i have loved my life so far. i love everything i have gotten to experience... everyone i've met... everywhere i've been... everything that has helped shape me into the person i am today. i'm thankful and appreciative. but that's just kind of how i am.
so... let's talk about your past. what have you kept and where? or have you thrown everything out.. and if so, why?
11 comments:
Absolutely! I have all of those kinds of things too. I keep them in boxes in my old bedroom at my parents house.
I have some things from my past. They are also in boxes and mostly in the attic except for yearbooks. I have thrown out cards and letters from past loves. Oh hell, I've ripped up cards from my husband when he pissed me off I was thinking of kicking him to the curb. He isn't off probation yet Jenn.
I have a trunk in my garage full of stuff from my past, mostly photo albums, notes and a few cards. i think one of the most treasured things i have is a few audio tapes of my friends and i hanging out in the early 90's. i sat down and listened to 1 of them a few years ago and it took me right back. if i closed my eyes i was transported right back there. it was weird but amazing at the same time.
I love that I started the pen pal thing. :)
I've kept a few pen pal letters but nothing from high school. I have my yearbooks though. I still have my first pair of Guess jeans (from 7th grade!), two cheerleading uniforms, and my Brownie sash. Oh, and the entire Sweet Valley High series. Ahhhhh, yeah. :)
I saved everything too....before I moved to my current casa...b/c I had no space for it all! I had to discard a lot of it. Plus, I had one massive purging moment and decided to go with it and actually toss A TON of stuff! I laughed the whole time I'd read that note from whatever boy wrote it...and maybe have saved a few...haha..
I love that pic of you girls in the paper! What a cool memory..
I have everything really special from my childhood and high school down to one box. But I've never journaled or been in the paper, so that cuts down on stuff :)
Oh man, I just moved so I went through boxes and boxes of all that shit! I have every single letter and note that I ever got from junior high to high school! It's so fricken funny going back and reading those
this is exactly why i love you. because i do the same thing. i've kept so much crap in boxes and matt insists i throw it all away. i refuse. you def have kept more but still...i get it. and the thing about you is that you're so different than anyone i've ever known. you're so sweet and sentimental and DEEP but then you're effin hilarious too. you just radiate life. so you collecting and keeping all this doesn't surprise me AT ALL.
What a great line of thought to make it onto your post! (I just may borrow the topic. ) And yes, as a fellow writer and sentimental fuck, I have held on to old love letters, notes passed in High School, newspaper articles, yearbooks and especially pictures. If my house was on fire and my daughter, husband and pets were safe, the one thing that I would grab would be my photos.
i'm you. but not as organized.
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