Cleanin' Out My Closet

As I stated in my previous post, one of my favored daily activities is cleaning. Today, I decided to tackle the three giant sterilite containers under my bed containing the remnants of my childhood and teen years. Needless to say, I encountered some memories: good and bad, and a whole lot of dust. I also had quite a few self realizations, including but not limited to...

a) I keep EVERYTHING, and by everything I really mean everything. Newspapers, magazines, receipts, pictures, notes, tapes, old phone boxes, AIM conversations from freshman year, movie stubs, plane tickets, artwork...the list could continue forever.

b) When going back through the massive amounts of crap that I have accumulated since the beginning of highschool, I still can't seem to throw anything away. I just take everything out, reread the old notes, look at the old pictures, and reorganize the clutter.

c) I used to think I was really cool. And believe me, I was not. My hair was several different kinds of awful, I didn't have a clue what I was talking about, and I definitely didn't have any idea what was to come in the next 5 years.

d) I used to be obsessed with passing notes. I must have 1,000 random little notes, probably passed when I should've been paying attention. One of the notes I found from Freshman year consisted of a nameless boy asking me if I still liked him, me telling him that I still liked him, but I also liked two other guys, and him telling me that he liked me but couldn't decide whether or not to let go of another girl. Oh, to be young and naive again.

e) I collect very strange things. I found an empty Dasani water bottle that I believe was from my plane ride from Atlanta to California. I remember not being able to throw that thing away, thinking that I would treasure it forever. I'll just go ahead and admit that I'm a pretty weird person.

f) I appreciate the fact that I am a junkie. When I was saving all those movie stubs, plane tickets, magazine covers, old reports, cards, pictures, and notes, I never imagined I would be looking back at them after my freshman year of college. I have the worst memory in the world, but I can look at all of those things individually and vividly remember the moments when those things became important to me.

g) I used to think I was a legitimate artist. I also used to think I was going to be a famous fashion designer living in Paris with a quality fashion line. Oh, how dreams change.

h) I used to collect depressing quotes and song lyrics, thinking I was so emo and so cool. But really, I was totally fooling myself. I mean come on, my favorite color is pink and I like country music and puppies. That is so not emo.

i) What was I thinking wearing those hideous clothes?

:)