“Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.” – Oscar Wilde
I mentioned a few posts ago that my closet is like a time machine. It is jammed packed full of unnecessary junk which needs to be purged or organized according to my mom memories. Every so often, maybe every 7-12 months I will pull everything out and go through it and see what I have been hoarding keeping.
For the first time in a long time I pulled everything out. I originally was in search of something, which I just realized I never found or got distracted and forgot about it (I also cannot remember what I was searching for which is currently frustrating me….). In the midst of looking for said object I got a little caught up in some of the things I found.
The items in my closet are a glimpse into the person I used to be. It is stuffed full of mementos of hopes and dreams of the girl I was, the girl I hoped to become, and even the person who I have become. Some items I kept because it was easier to throw in the closet and forget about it, than to walk 20 feet and find the garbage; it is those items which seem to mean the most. The items of memories you would have otherwise thrown away.
There were items which I feel like I haven’t seen in years. The items which either meant a great deal, or were accidental memories.
The yearbook from my grade 8 graduating class – I was co-editor. Our yearbook group spend hours after school for weeks trying to pull it off. Has it really been 8 years? Flipping through the pages it seems like a lifetime ago, yet in other ways it could have been yesterday. The girl I was that lifetime ago could not wait for high school and the amazing years that would be spent there.
I pull more things out and I find not only all 4 yearbooks from high school, but the graduating picture. A picture which I haven’t opened since receiving it graduation night 4 years ago. It has been so long that the rubber band holding it closed has left an indent.
The more I dig the more I find. The mirror which lived through high school with me. The same mirror which hung in my locker for all 4 years. A mirror I looked in multiple times a day, every day. I looked in it on every good and bad day. Before every class, lunch, morning, afternoon – wow I sound vein. It is such a small (and really cheap) thing which I literally watched myself grow in. This September will officially mark 4 years since finishing high school. I would have been out of high school as long as I was in it.
I find my first two stages of driving licenses. Things I couldn’t wait to obtain. Paperwork, actual license, the admit slips for class since I was late coming back after taking the tests. Homeroom 217 – religion. It will be 6 years in June that I got it. 6 years.
I keep digging. I find 2 cellphones. I laugh at first, an LG chocolate spin, and a blackberry storm (the original) and totally the coolest thing ever at the time. I kept them in my pocket every day. I find a charger, I plug them in and turn them on. I read text messages. Complaining about homework, math tests, who was grounded and who could hang on a Friday night, what movie everyone wanted to see, who had detention or who could come for lunch. Those were the biggest issues of those days.
I remember living through all of this wishing and dreaming about being older so it could all be over. I was never content. Working on our yearbook wishing we were in high school and driving. I got to high school, started driving, wishing I was 18 so I could do whatever I want and high school would be over. I turned 18, high school ended, did the college thing, couldn’t wait for that to end. College ended and life started. I am at the place I always wanted to be, and yet there are still things I can’t wait for – paying off school, buying a house, marriage..
Somehow, just going through my closet and getting a glimpse of the past causes me to slow down. To enjoy and to live in the present. To realize everything goes by way too fast.
Then just like that, I put everything back inside, and close the door on those little memories for another day.
—————————————————
Do you have a little time travel box/room/closet?
What do you miss most about the past?
Life Full Of Jules 
Ooooo, and as one ages, the memories grow!!! I still have a few dresses from my high school years (and have worn them from time to time!!), I always regret getting rid of things, so I tend to hang on to it!! Oh what hoarders we humans are. And yet, I wouldn’t change it for a second!!
Love this!!
❤ Jules
Haha, we are definite hoarders. But I think its the one tangible thing we can hold on to you know? memories fade, new ones are made, the tangible items are memories we can actually hold, which allow us to relive those times!
That is pretty awesome. Every once in a while I pull out my yearbook from high school and totally see someone I haven’t remembered for years. And then I see myself too and go, Who is that?
Hahaha yearbooks can be horrible. I get a great laugh looking at my parents’ yearbooks from the 80s. The hair is something to be desired. yikes.
Whoa, your parents are from the 80’s? Now that make me feel old. I was from the late 80’s early 90’s. I’m closer to your parent’s age than you.
Haha, I was born in 1992, my parents graduated in 1986. They have officially been out of soon longer than they were in it!
Whoa you were born in 1992? I was in college. I guess that makes you really young….(or me really old).
youre as old as you feel…. at least that is what my mother tells herself
I feel 90, so…
well….. Yikes. That’s old. Did you apply for your senior discounts?
Yes, but they keep rejecting my bitter old man status.
This post is awesome!! I love looking through my old yearbooks! Since I’m still living with my rents’ I’m still in my childhood room, and pretty much discover old cool stuff everyday. I love that stuff, but I’ll probably always keep it at my parents house when I eventually move out! I don’t want to take it with me but at the same time I don’t want to throw it all away :p
I totally know what you mean. I get in weird moods sometimes though and I purge a bunch of stuff which I later regret. I realized a few weeks ago that I tossed all the CDs with all the information from all my previous computers from grade 8 through high school, So i lost all those pictures. I am so smart!!
Oh my goodness. I can’t even imagine what I would find tucked away in my closet. I totally had that exact same LG phone only it was called an LG Chocolate here lol. My first touch screen, I was so excited! Saved up forever to buy it. Now, I can’t imagine having anything but my iPhone.
I can’t wait to go visit my parents and go into my old room for a bit of a rummage to see what I can find. I’m sure I have all my school journal’s for each year of secondary school somewhere, with a lot of notes that my friends and I passed to each other during study periods!! I’d love to read all of them again 🙂