Self Archives (Pointless personal info poll)Follow

While looking for my son's social security card the other week, I came across a couple shoeboxes that got pushed into the corner during my move into the house. Inside them was piles of letters, mostly from friends while I was in college, but also from past girlfriends, relatives, etc. I also had an impressive amount of photos and some assorted bric-a-brac (ticket stubs and the like). Obviously I knew I had been keeping all this, but for the first time I actually took note of how much was there. I could have probably spent a good couple days reading all the letters.

Originally, I had been keeping it all for my own benefit. Mementos and the like. But it occured to me that when I pass on from this earth, someone else might be reading them. Of course, they might also throw them all away.. who knows? Still, the thought kind of appealed to me. Vanity, I imagine. Ironically, since this is all incoming mail, the reader would probably learn more about my past flings and friends than they'd actually learn about me.. but whatever.

Anyone else keep all this crap? Keep a journal/diary? That's one thing I was never able to do consistantly. I'd get about two weeks into it and then start using the pages to take down phone numbers and stuff. Probably because I always tried to make it a daily thing, or something close to it. Had I simply kept it around to scribe in as the moment grabbed me, I may have kept at it.

I also can't keep a diary. I find that I can write in it every so often, but sometimes I have either nothing so say or nothing I want to put into writing. I don't feel that I'll go back and read these things and somehow better myself, or that others can benefit from my thoughts, so it's a non-issue for me.

I do, although, keep old pictures and letters from friends and past gf's. I also keep old concert tickets, high school dance pictures, and other momentos of my childhood, like my best friend's graduation announcment. I also have the card that my older sister gave me when she left for college. It's a very emotional thing, and I like to keep things like that for memory. Maybe one day I'll make a scrapbook of sorts from all the stuff I've collected, but I doubt it.

Yup, I keep all that stuff. I figure it will come in handy in the future when scholors look back and wonder "how the hell did we miss it? The signs were all there, the wombats, the snails, the invasion of luxembourg, everything???"