Nostalgia

For this week’s writing challenge, shake the dust off something — a clothing item, a post draft, a toy — you haven’t touched in ages, but can’t bring yourself to throw away.

I never throw anything away. So when I saw this prompt I thought, hey this could be a nice challenge. Instead of just finding something I couldn’t bring myself to leave behind, I can look at why I didn’t toss them.

There are so many things I have in my room that are well over five years old, some are gifts from friends that I no longer talk to, some are stuffed animals my elementary teacher gave me as rewards when I learned English, some are books I read as a kid. I’m just going to write about a few of them.

An Altoids mint tin

I really have no clue why I haven’t tossed this. I promise it’s not because I’m lazy and let trash accumulate on my desk. Somehow, this little tin just survived my clean-up raids. The tin is green, far from my favorite color. It’s metallic, so not really environmental friendly if tossed but reusable. And it’s currently used as a cardholder. I think I still have this because when I look at it a little flashback occurs.

It’s a nice little flashback. It was during xc season, I was walking home with my friend, we both felt tired and gross and in need of something refreshing before we can start talking. So we popped two mints into our mouth and maybe it was the magic of the afternoon sun tinting the streets in a golden-orange glow, or maybe it was just the refreshing taste of the mints, we had one of the best conversations that I absolutely can not recall. I only remember it as a warm fuzzy feeling of belonging.

A Magic Tree House book

The Magic Tree House books were my absolute favorite. Which little kid didn’t fantasize about going on an adventure through time and space?? I know I did! In fact, that fascination carried on to Doctor Who. I actually only bought one book, Blizzard of the Blue Moon. It the only Merlin Mission book I couldn’t find in my school/county library so I went and bought it. Guess I never donated that book because it reminds me of a little girl who struggled so much with English but loved reading about Jack and Annie so dearly that she would Google Translate the book word by word if she had to.

A picture of fourth grade me

Just to clarify, this picture isn’t even a fancy school photo. It was just a picture I took for passport renewal. I use that picture as a bookmark now. I really should toss it out because every time I see that picture, I notice the innocent little smile I had and it just makes me so sad. This probably sounds ridiculous to the older people, I’m still a kid, what’s there to be sad about? Well, it doesn’t matter how old you are, when you think of a more innocent self you will cringe a bit. I want to revert back to the time when stuff like grades weren’t that big of a deal and friendships weren’t so rare.

That’s it for now I guess. A bit nostalgic, mostly trying to explain to myself why I keep all this random stuff in my room. It’s always nice to take a trip down memory lane, it feels like I’m getting closer to finding myself.

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