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Showing posts with label memories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memories. Show all posts

The past is alright.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

A few weeks ago I decided I would start posting throwback pictures on here...and then I forgot all about it obviously. Tonight I'm bringing that back...and before you say it, yes! I am very aware it isn't Thursday yet...but I really can't think of anything to write about tonight as my life has literally been a big jumbled blur of nothing and everything all at once for the last few days. Roll on.


I remember this month of my life so perfectly (Late January-Early February of 2005). I was 11 and this was the month my whole entire world changed. I had just moved to the United States, I remember everything. I remember my first day here, driving from Boston airport to our new home in a stretch limo, surrounded by oversized luggage. I remember going to Dunkin Donuts on the drive and ordering boiling hot chocolates for our frozen bodies that before this date had never seen snow (which my brother decided to touch whilst waiting for our limo and regretted instantly...turns out snow is cold). I remember our driver comparing Steve Urwin putting his baby in the crocodile pit to Michael Jackson dangling his baby over the balcony. I remember a conversation I had with my brother about an icicle whilst sitting outside Sugar River as my Mum set up bank accounts the next day.I remember eating so much meatball pizza in that first month. I remember the smell of our new jeep. I remember everybody following me around school on the first day bombarding me with questions about whether I ate crocodile. I remember literally everything. 

Oh and that is (was...presumed dead due to bobcat slaughter in 2011) my cat Phantom. He was given to me when I first arrived at my new home. I remember spending an hour trying to coax him out from under my mums bed before debating about whether he was a Phantom or a Zorro for the remainder of the night.....Phantom won obviously.


This was my class trip in 2011. This is just one of about 344 pictures snapped of my entire class whilst we sat huddled together freezing on the beach that day. Whenever people see those pictures they are always confused as to where everybody else is...but alas that is all of us. Just 28 kids...now adults...but always kids in my mind, initially bonded together by nothing more than age and location, but now, even as we live separate lives, bonded still. 


This was my first day of year 10 in Brisbane, Australia. As you can tell I had reached that angsty teenage phase where I wasn't overly excited about having my picture snapped in my awfully attractive uniform at 8am. This is when we lived in a rental house*** that was almost completely void of furniture as ours was all in storage after moving over from the west coast. We slept on air beds that slowly deflated through the night, our TV rested on a box in the living room and I spent most of my nights on the phone to my best friend back in Perth...much to the annoyance of my father who's dreams became overrun with my booming conversations from the room across landing. Sorry Pops.

***Said rental house. Our first Queensland home. 


This is a picture of my youngest brother that I found and couldn't not include because it melted my cold dead heart. I find it especially precious because this little munchk is now boardering on teenager and will never again be this precious little Buzz Lightyear wearing peach. 


And lastly a selfie I took when I was 15 and thought I was exceptionally cool obviously. Because at the end of the day, no matter how hard things may seem you can always be reassured that you will never again have to be a 15 year old...and if that doesn't make you feel good I'm not sure what will!



I never seen a sight that didn't look better looking' back.

Friday, April 25, 2014

I have a confession to make....




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....


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