Throwing away childhood.

When I moved to Seattle, I took a lot of my things with me.

However, I have been alive for 21 years, and over that time I acquired A LOT OF THINGS.

Many of my possessions stayed here at home, at my parents' house, where they have been taking up space for 9 months since I left.

Today I am back home, on a Saturday, CLEANING. My mom wants me to consolidate all of those THINGS into a few manageable boxes and get rid of the rest. :/ This is hard.

What I have left in there is:
1. My closet. (O.o)
2. Under my bed. (O.o)
3. 1 bookshelf.


I am trying to power through, but every time I reach for a new stack of things or open a new box, I find a whole plethora of pictures to look at, or notes from old friends to read, or books I once loved, or little containers full of things that look like junk but I remember (or guess, if it's been awhile) that they're secret memories from my life (a weird shaped rock, a piece of cloth, a quarter taped to a piece of paper). How do you go through these things? How do you decide what gets thrown away and what gets held on to for just a little longer?

Also, the biggest thing, is that I keep finding folders of old writing, NOTEBOOKS upon NOTEBOOKS of started and forgotten stories, and tons of old school newspapers I'm published in, and papers I wrote for school. How do I decide which old writing from my childhood is worth keeping and which should be tossed? I HAVE NO IDEA.


I've finished under my bed and I have two tubs to save and one huge box and one huge bag to get rid of or throw away. I'm taking a break before I tackle the closet.


Also, I found a paper my brother wrote in 2002 (he was 9 years old then) and I wanted to share it here for posterity. I have no idea why I had one of my brother's papers in, but it's GOLD, so I'm glad I had it. I probably stole it back then because I knew I'd appreicate it more than he would when I found it again:

"T.V.

I love to watch T.V. There is the remote. It controls the whole T.V. My family fights over it! I get it the most. The screen makes it so you can watch T.V. That is the glass. The channels are the things the shows are on. The numbers. That's all I know about T.V."


Hahaha. He's cute. I just went in his room and read it to him and he turned all red and laughed.


So here I am, covered in dust and memories, trying to decide which parts of my past to throw away. I think the world will be happy to know I threw out seven issues of "Animerica" and a copy of Seventeen magazine from 1996. I also found my abandoned State Quarters collection. I got as far as Vermont. I found my POG collection and my Tenchi Muyo and Ah! My Goddess dvds which I am actually pretty excited about. I found a lot of old drawings (forgot I used to be a little artist) and so many pictures I don't even know what to do with them all. I also found a picture I had taken when I was in 4th grade that was all glamour shot-y, and I look like a freaking movie star. I may have to scan that one in; I didn't even remember having it taken.

Here's to a few more hours of cleaning. Phew.