Day 54 (Recall) Where I've Been

I’ve recently gotten into the redecorating spirit. 

And as I was rearranging my boockcases to make them look more aesthetically pleasing and simultaneously making room for the multitude of picture frames I have yet to buy and/or set up and setting up drapes instead of doors for my closet, I managed to come across a few things.

Like…my old Gameboy color along with pretty much all of my old game cartridges (3 of which are for Pokemon), my old language books that I never got around to actually studying, and [my favorite] my old high school agenda.

See, I have this strange, unfathomable fear of losing my memory. Perhaps it was watching The Notebook or more like because both sides of my family have a tendency to develop Alzheimer’s, I’m not too sure, but I’ve always had this semi-irrational fear of one day waking up and not knowing anything about myself. For some reason, I’ve always been freaked out at the prospect of losing my mind and subsequently all the people and memories I hold dear to my heart. So over the years, I’ve found ways to keep those memories alive, starting with daily diaries and then moving on to pictures when I got my first camera in Christmas of 2004.

My agenda is one of those little ways that I’ve managed to hold on to my old memories. The cover’s a little frayed and the teal imprint of my school’s mascot has faded a bit over the years, but everything’s still here. See, on top of my fear of losing my memories, I made a habit of collecting certain things over the years. So, stuffed between the pages are a ton of things (categorized by month) ranging from movie stubs to field trip forms to the occasional note passed to me from old girlfriends that I don’t even see anymore.

It’s sweet and nostalgic to look over these memories. In fact, according to this agenda (in bright pink highlighter meaning an “out of school” event) I was at a Mu Alpha Theta “competition” in another city for the weekend exactly 5 years ago.

I remember that I shared a room with a few girlfriends and it was the first time that High School Musical was aired, because I fell from the hotel bed onto my head within the first thirty minutes of the movie. I competed in the “Pi recall” game, remembering a pathetic 30 or so decimal places past 3.14 and managing to step on a nail on the same day.

It’s funny what you end up remembering from such a small prompt. That memory clearly isn’t anything too significant, but it’s one of the many this lone agenda keeps alive for me.

And I found it all because I wanted to make room for more picture frames. I should redecorate more often… 

Written 1/21/11