Packing Memories

While I was back in Montreal in late August, I had a daunting task to accomplish: sort through all the boxes I had stored in my mother's basement, and keep as little as possible. This was something that I was supposed to do since I first moved away from home, four years ago, and that I had successfully put off until just a few weeks ago. So there I was, amid all my childhood keepsakes, rediscovering all those little things that I once found important enough not to throw away... and I became brutal.

Off went the lone doll, Momotaro, and all her clothing. Off went all those little statues that I bought at garage sales, and all the clothing that I thought I might be able to fit into once more (no dice). And off went pictures, old posters, drawings, fake hair (from when I wanted to get all my hair done up in little tiny braids), most stuffed animals, marbles... And then I made the best discovery of all: my old notebooks which contained all my attempts at writing novels. These were written with I was in 7th or 8th grade, before learning how to spell in English, and they are quite horrible in retrospect... but still enthralling. So I took a 2h break, skimmed most stories, and then got back to work. (It took me the better part of 2 weeks to finish reading them all, and I realized that I already knew things about myself back then that I had forgotten and have been now rediscovering!)

Things that I saved: old agendas, report cards, favorite stuffed animals, good pictures, letters, essays... a big box's worth a nicknacks really. When all is said and done, I was happy to finally get this accomplished, yet another step along the path right? Most of the things I gave away were no longer important or sentimental to me, and I vowed (while lugging the give away boxes outside) to stop accumulating random junk, and to try to stay emotionally unattached to as many of my possessions as possible.

And now, here I am, a few weeks later, packing and unpacking once more (since I'm moving to a brighter, nicer apartment, yay!)... and I'm quite amazed at how much stuff I'm been able to accumulate in a year. I moved out here with a total of six 50lbs boxes, and now I have enough to fill 4 carloads + furniture! Embarrassing, really. Hopefully now that I live in a smaller apartment, I will finally become the type of consumer I want to be!