Boxed in memories

My parents recently moved to California from the Midwest and along with their furniture, they also brought a bunch of boxes that were, according to my mom, full of my junk. These boxes were gleefully unloaded on my front porch, as my parents were pretty happy to unload themselves of the extra baggage.

So I lugged the mystery boxes into the living room and into a corner, where I basically ignored them for a couple of days, not ready to delve into what could be lurking behind those cover flaps.

Finally, however, curiosity got the better of me, and armed with an exacto knife in one hand, and a glass of cabernet in the other, sat down in front of the first one, took a deep breath ... and coughed my lungs out. That's a lot of dust!

I am not one that keeps "things" around for very long. Photos, old projects, things that others might cherish as memories from long ago - every two years I cleanse my life of a lot of these things, not because of the bad memories, but because I need to make space for newer junk. Looking back I probably threw some sentimental objects out that I would have cherished down the line, but then again, if these objects aren't around to arouse my sentimentality, I won't miss it either.

Looking through these boxes, however, I realized that my parents were quite the opposite. Inside I found papers and art projects from my youth that, though now as a parent I can see they probably kept, are not things I want or want around. Old art pieces from when I was six? Why would I want those - so I can look back and see how far my talents have brought me? Wow, I was a really bad artist back then, but look at me now?

There were also some old compositions I wrote for Freshmen lit class. Really? Do I need to look back at my attempts at poetry and romantic stories that were thinly veiled autobiographical accounts of my schoolgirl crushes? Hmmmm .... nope.

Some of the stuff - yearbooks and college directories - are great because I can Google classmates and find out how far they've come (or not - for some reason many of these people can't be Googled at all, so either they're off the grid, or doing things in their life that don't merit a Google hit.)

I know many people will say But those are your memories, you can't just toss those away! Someday you'll look back at it all, or be able to show it to your grandchildren. To which I say No, I won't look back at most of it, because most of it isn't worth looking back at. It's the same for a lot of our memories and past experiences. Sure they shaped us into what we are today, but that doesn't mean they all need to be remembered or cherished. Their job is done, it's time to move on.