preserve your memories; they're all that's left you
Random Ramble:
As I've been preparing to move for my new job, I've had some trouble packing and I think I can finally put my finger on why: at some point, don't you have to let go of some old memorabilia and knick knacks that you were given or got on a trip? Or do people just keep accumulating all this stuff? Carrying it to every home they move to? Why?
Recently, my external hard drive crashed and no data was able to be recovered. I didn't realize how much stuff I had on there that I didn't have anywhere else because the data that was on that hard drive was a compilation of pretty much all the data that I had had on all of my computers since my very first in 1998. Point being that some of that stuff originally had been on two or more types of media, but over the years it had dwindled down to just being on whatever external hard drive I was using. In essence, when that hard drive crashed, I lost about 10 years worth of digital memorabilia - all of the digital photos from living in Japan for 4 years, all of my academic writing from my English degree and accumulated music from when I used to buy CDs (about 400 albums worth) that I no longer own.
It was a hard day when I got the news from the computer shop about the data not being able to be recovered. After a couple of weeks, I started to emotionally recover, but it got me to thinking about what we carry with us through our lives - whether it's digital data, boxes of photos, souvenirs, clothes that we don't quite fit into anymore but you love so much you keep them anyway. Aren't our memories good enough? Even if I had none of this stuff, these things - would it, in the end, matter? Must we be surrounded by physical reminders and the assurance of instant access to them? Who are we keeping these things for - us or some unknown future inheritor that we hope would be curious enough about us to wade through the decades of stuff and puzzle together a romanticized picture of us and our life?
Sometimes I think I keep it for that unknown person, because the only time
I ever take the time to sift through it is when I move. What happens when I stop moving? Will all that stuff just sit in a box waiting for someone else to discover it? What makes me think that any of it would be interesting to anyone else? Or will I finally be able to
do something with it? Because I've always thought I would eventually make scrapbooks for trips that I've taken or albums of photos of family and friends. But even if it all just stays in a box, still, I find it hard to lighten my load and get rid of even the smallest things...
So that's what has been on my mind lately.
Labels: Random Ramble