old shoeboxes

i have resolved to clean up my room before go to work abroad. that means putting everything in neat little boxes, so when the time comes for me to move out permanently, it won't be so difficult. besides, my mom had made a mess of my room while i was away (hardly a year in-between visits!) that i really need to sort my things out. i suppose my mother cannot be completely to blame. i DID leave my room pretty much a mess when i left back in 2005. but i share the blame with my older sister, who has not lived at home for - oh, i don't know - over five years. it is actually the presence of her junk that made me decide to pack up for good. i don't want anyone else to feel the irritation i felt while going through endless mounds of stuff that belong to someone who has not been around for half a decade.

but i digress. in the process of cleaning up, i chanced upon my childhood and teen-age treasures. and i actually surprised myself with how much of my high school years i remembered. things that i never thought of all these years - memories i forgot i had - just started surfacing. i suppose that's the whole point of keepsakes, souvenirs and memorabilia. they help you bring back thoughts which you would have otherwise discarded. and it feels safe to know that at the end of the day, a few years down the road... something will remind you of a place, an event, a person, or even a feeling that you once had.

in a way, it becomes yesterday once more.