Memory Clutter--good riddance!!

As I've mentioned before, I have a terrible memory.  Blame it on the wine I've consumed in the last 15 years or maybe on my 2 kids (I never got over pregnancy brain, apparently).  Whatever the reason is that I can't remember anything, I've kept too many things hoping it would trigger some memory of an event that has occurred in my life.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work too well.

I've kept two foot-locker trunks full of crap memorabilia that I am starting to go through and purge.  The tip I gave a few posts ago about giving yourself distance really works.  I've given myself 20+ years distance on a lot of the stuff and can't remember why I kept half of it.  My goal is to condense them into just one trunk.

Remember when we used to pass notes in class, as in the ones written on a piece of paper?  For those of you young folks who only know texts and emails, this is the way we communicated in the old days.  I found at least a dozen shoeboxes full of these notes and discovered that I had the past all wrong.  Maybe I was romanticizing it, but I kind of wish I never opened up that pandora's box, literally.

While I don't remember most of the details of my high school years, I do remember the lessons of these events, or bad friendships/relationships.  Isn't that what counts anyway?  I regret a lot of the decisions I made back then, but there are no do-overs in life, so it is what it is.  I am who I am because of those decisions.

I'll admit that I don't remember a lot of the people from my high school who have friended me on Facebook, but does it really matter how we were back then if we've become better people now?  I'm glad I don't hold on to the past because I don't think I would have made the friends from my high school that I have made this past year.  Maybe losing my mind isn't such a bad thing after all.

I can't wait to get rid of more stuff and be done with it forever.  It's very cathartic to let go of the past in such a permanent way. I would've burned that stuff as a symbolic gesture but sent it to the recycling instead (because burning it wouldn't have been very eco-friendly, now would it).  Revealing the "drama" that I went through as a teenager makes me so thankful of the life I have today, and a little anxious of what's to come in the future with my kids when they become teenagers.

So this week's eco-tip is to let go of the past and your memory clutter.  You'll find that most of it has no significance whatsoever.  And remember to recycle it if you can.

Thanks for reading!
Next week: gas logs vs. woodburning fireplaces