The common local practice over here is for young folks to live with their parents till they get married. Although I got married a few years ago and no longer stay with my parents, I still have quite a bit of my belongings in their house.
All’s good until my parents told me that they’ve sold the place and are going to move since there’s no longer a need for such a big house. So I’ve been forced to go through my things every weekend when I return.
This I found to be quite an emotional exercise. I spent most of my growing up years in that house. I’m now trying to pack close to 20 years of my life into boxes. Where do I even start? The hardest is deciding whether to dispose of things which aren’t worth much at all but yet has nostalgic value attached. I found notes which my classmates and I scribbled to each other during class. There were boxes filled with greetings cards I received (pre-digital days those were) and I still love the look of ink on paper. Lots and lots of CDs. I contemplated converting all of them into soft copies but I remember the excitement of buying the CDs and checking out what’s in the sleeves. A huge container of mindless things but which are reminders of my one year life in Japan. Then there’s the last red packet my grandmother gave to me before she left us. And so much more...
Those days have forever passed but if there are tangible remnants of them, I feel like I want to hold on to them as long as I can. If you’ve gone through a similar experience, you may understand what I’m trying to express. It has been a couple of trying weekends. I may have been forced to dispose of some things, but I hope it also means I’m now creating space for new memories to be made.
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