Now that I've moved out of my parents' house, I'm faced with the task of
cleaning up the room that has been my room since I was five months old, so
that it can be used for other things.  I think the last time that room was
thoroughly cleaned was when I was 12 and we got the house remodeled, so the
stuff I have in it dates back to then.  Now all of that has to be sorted
through and I have to decide what to do with it.  More importantly, I am
running accross all kinds of things that I had completely forgotten about,
and probably some things that I never meant to save.  My room has remnants
from just about every phase of my life, from things that I was using right
up until I moved out, to things that I last saw six years ago

Some of the stuff that I've found has just been amazing.  One thing I
discovered was a stash of newspapers, apparrently from a day when I must have
been subbing on somebody's paper route when I was in seventh grade.  The thing
is, these weren't just any old six year old newspapers  -- these two copies
of the Ann Arbor News covered probably the most important historical event
of the last 50 years: the day the Berlin Wall came down and the iron curtain
fell with it.  It shows pictures of people celebrating by climbing on top of
the Berlin Wall, and says that work crews were going to begin cutting holes
in the wall the next day.  It then quotes a couple of people as saying that
the lifting of the border restrictions is intended to be permanant, but ti
takes a somewhat skeptical tone towards that.  Ah, the memories...

A little closer to home, there were also things that I had created in about
the same period, including some papers from my ill-fated campaign for student
council in seventh grade, and my sign from my middle school's Gulf War protest
when I was in eighth grade.

There is also lots of non political stuff, ranging from the various gadgets
I've played with over the years, including old PC hardware and joysticks from
my old Atari, to tapes and CDs of the various different kinds of music I've
listened to over the years, stashes of old letters, and who knows what else.
You name it, it's there.

On top of all the memories it brings back, now I have to figure out what to
do with it.  What do I want to keep?  What do I want to throw away?  What am
I going to start wishing I had kept several years from now.  All my life, I've
been one of those people who never threw anything away.  Now I'm getting to
revive all those memories, and it's nice.  But, it's time to get rid of some
of that stuff, and probably time to accept that I'm not the kid I used to be.
Well, it's nice to look back.

4 responses total.

Wow. <abchan realizes that she will have to move out soon too>
When I was home this past summer and trying to clean out my room, I discovered
tons and tons of notebooks buried here there and everywhere, and even sheets of
paper all folded up and smashed somewhere.  When I read what I had written, and
some of this dates back to 1984, it made me realize how much I had changed and
even though I wasn't the typical child and always felt a bit older than my
classmates, I realized how young and immature I was, and how years from now, I
will look back at who I am today, and realize how much more I've changed.

I think it's important to hold onto memories.  I just wish it didn't mean
holding onto stuff.  I still have kindergarden assignments in the attic!

yup...i've been working on this project to...(sigh)
i have so much junk that is JUNK, but i can't just coldly throw it away!!!

That's my problem too.  Junk, junk, junk.  Clothes that I outgrew ten years
ago, at least.  Electronic stuff that was too complicated for me when I got
it, and too simple to be worth playing with now.  Old toys that I don't have
much interest in, and even things that are in my closet because I never had
any interest in them, various little things that seemed neat at the time that
I picked up over the years, lots of assorted papers that should have a few
things that I absolutely can't get rid of them, and the list goes on.  What
makes it all the stranger is that here is this room that was my from before
I can remember until just a few weeks ago, and now I have to clean all of my
stuff out of it.  I've only been gone three weeks, and already my parents are
full of plans for what to use the room for, and seem to think I'm not getting
my stuff out of it fast enough.  Meanwhile, most of that stuff is so useless
that I can't stand the thought of moving it over here.

my room doens't have that [problem/...my room is the dog's room...there are
no plans for that room until the dog dies.....:)

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