:: two urges diverged in a wood, and i -- ::
now, i don't mean to give the impression that i don't have a lot of stuff. i do. i have more stuff than i need, more than i want, and more than i have room or time for.
what i don't have is any emotional attachment to most stuff. i'm not a person who needs to save something just for the sake of having loved it once. or it having been given to me by someone i haven't seen in ten years. i prefer to save (i.e. store in the basement) things for just three reasons:
1 - i honestly think i will use it again in the somewhat near future
2 - it is an expensive or cumbersome object that i think there's a chance (even a small one) i will use again someday, and replacing it will cost far more than the effort/stress/space it costs me to save it (i.e. spendy camping equipment, baby clothes, etc.)
3 - i consider it a small way to provide my kids with some insight into who their mother is. (emphatic emphasis on the word small - i flat out refuse to just save stuff because one day my kids may go through it. i try to keep all my "whoa, look what mom used to do/have/be" items to two large rubbermaid containers, no more.)
i'm having a little trouble deciding about two things, though: my box filled with newspaper clippings (from 7 years spent writing for and editing newspapers and magazines), and my dissertation boxes.
neither meets the above criteria. i will not use these items in the future. they are not small. if i lost them in a fire i wouldn't even be particularly sad. which means i should let them go. but i'm feeling very attached to them. both are very physical reminders of parts of my identity -- and in fact significant chunks of my life -- that i consider sort of gone now. they're parts of me that i'm not anymore. parts of me that i gave very serious consideration to, that i spent long periods of time thinking would possibly become the things that defined me, in a way.
at the same time, though, even as i'm feeling attached, i'm also feeling a very strong urge to just get them out of my house. stop filling up space we don't have with things i will probably never even look at.
i can't decide how best to honor the first urge while fulfilling the second. what do you think?
Sarah S. · 764 weeks ago
upupcreative 38p · 764 weeks ago
ali · 764 weeks ago
upupcreative 38p · 764 weeks ago
but you're probably still right. : )
sarah · 764 weeks ago
Cindy · 764 weeks ago
Katie Stephenson · 764 weeks ago
trisha · 764 weeks ago
my masters in architecture made me miserable too, but i'm not ready to get rid of everything yet. It's partially because it was a significant chunk of my life, but mostly because there are a few things i am truly proud of and want to save, but they're mixed in with the rest of the crap ... and i'm so very not ready to deal with all of the unhealthy, still-too-raw emotions of frustration, anger, and disappointment over certain asshole professors and failed "teamwork" that inevitably go along with that sort/purge. maybe next year though!