I'm a hoarder.
It's really bad.
I was born with a natural desire to document. I have an amazing memory, and I think this stems from my ability to be able to link memories to physical objects I can have, hold and cherish long after an event has happened.
This is why I hoard.
I have boxes scattered throughout my life full to the brim with pictures and letters and trinkets from years past and present that I constantly look through to simply smile and remember.
This weekend I really needed a life pause. I was stressed and emotionally drained and I felt like what I really needed was a trip out of the city, some Yama (...a Korean Restaurant for anybody who isn't Erika) and a couple of long runs on the treadmill with some Big L pounding into my brain. So I hopped on a bus and trekked up to the woods.
Whenever I take a trip up here I like to make it a point to go through my high school memories box...it's quite possibly one of my favourites and it's especially good in de-stressing me from the adult drama that sent me running in the first place.
Some random things I came across include....
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Sand and a stolen Skee-ball from one of our many post-graduation trips to Old Orchard Beach, Maine.
A cigar I bought the day I turned 18, My friend Emily's 16th Birthday present (She is now 21) and one of about 7000 photo booth photos.
A bear my parents got me when I turned 13 and a card given to me by a friend back when I moved to America at 11.
One of the many friendship bracelets that graced my wrist over the years, an old school ID from my school in Brisbane, a simple "I love yeu" gifted to me by my once baby (now over 6 foot tall) brotherand a "hit list" written by my two best friends and I at the angsty age of 15.
An old Blue Moon bottle my best friends and I used to ring in 2009....and then went home to do Myspace surveys together....
A sealed letter from my friend Katie to herself that I must give back to her once she graduates from college....or when she saves the world (I'm thinking the latter may come first), A "Congrats Grad" necklace I drunkenly wore for about 3 days following graduation, A letter from one of my daycare kiddies when I left to go off to college and finally, a list my best friend wrote me of the 10 things she would use to describe me....starting off with lazy, what a sweetheart! (zoomed in below)
All these random things were sandwiched between pages and pages of friendship notes, love notes, birthday cards, pictures, postcards and valentines. They all live together in the tippy top of a closet that houses other old memories, pictures and artwork. They are safe there. Hidden away, yet always available for me to retreat to when I need a pick me up and a wander to the past.
And it's always a reminder that as hard and confusing as life gets, at least I don't live in a hole like this old game of MASHO predicted...
#winning
