First off, I promise to write a boy post soon. I finally reformatted my sister’s old laptop to use, but it is from the year 2000, crazy, and so internet pages are not meant for IE version5. I’m using my ipod, but typing on there gets old quickly.
Anyway, I just spent the last hour going though old stuff from high school and recycling two boxes of paper. The first was a box of manilla folders and such, organized for each class, and by class by subject, for my Junior year in high school. Seriously, why did I think that I would ever need that stuff again? I looked at the history stuff, and laughed. Because the history we learned was so basic, and one sided, and just overall problematic. Then I had a box of “memories” from my senior year in high school. I kept the stupidest shit! Like my soccer schedule. WTF? Who cares? And all the brochures from Jostens. Let me just say that I was a yearbook girl and had totally bought the whole memories schpeal and so yah. I had receipts from things I don’t even remember. And cards from my HS boyfriend, whom I grew to hate but didn’t break up with til the end of the year. And he was so lame. And even his cards were lame. They were just signed Love, Name. So lame. Who does that? Kids in high school, that’s who. And also, every single holiday card I recieved, and every single present that I got that year, the wrapping paper and bows were saved. My name tags from various events. Flyers for the grad trip to Disneyland I organized. Did I mention I was an overachieving dork in high school whose one goal was to get the hell out of dodge and accomplished said fact by being “perfect” and the “best” and doing every single extra curricular activity, twice. Yah, was I in for a shock when I got to college. But really, I needed to get away, I thought senior year in high school is so great, woohoo. But really, the people in my life who really matter, the *real* friendships that I have are from college and after. It’s weird to see what you once considered a “friend” and what you now consider a “friend.” All the college acceptance letters to the places I didn’t go… where was the one to the place I *did* go?! Now that could have been worth saving. Oh, and a nasty ziploc bag I refused to open with my prom corsage. Corsages, now those are funny. It’s so hilarious what we find important at that age. And what we think grownups do. Yep, they wear fancy gowns and corsages and go out all the time in limos. Ahh, the life.
I ended up keeping a few things, a few grad cards — the ones from my parents and from my godmother who has since passed, it’s nice to find stuff written in her handwriting. So no deep thoughts really, it’s just funny, I guess. I have a lot more of this to do…Must get things packed for the end of the year move. And before you can pack, you have to toss out all the shit you have accumulated and thought you needed and couldn’t live without. And then you see it and are like, huh, what was that for?
Are any of you still hoarding high school clutter?
Seeking Academia 
I had saved a large, maybe 50 gallon, tupperware of random stuff. I just went through it again when I moved back here. It was at my mom’s house. Some random stuff like you mentioned and some of that stuff I can’t yet get rid of. The box was mostly photographs though and I was so happy to go through those. Having moved a bunch and since my mom doesn’t have a lot of room and I had to toss a bunch of items like the ones you mentioned when I left for grad school. But I guess the major cleanse of high school crap was my senior year when we packed to move 4 hours away after graduation. Oh wait, and I moved once during college so I had to cleanse there also. Anyway, it’s a trip going through that stuff and I wondered if I should keep more of it to have that same experience again in 10 or 50 years but my anti clutter self wouldn’t let me keep much.
By: Jennie on December 19, 2008
at 6:23 am
I’ve pared down to 2 small boxes (one shoebox size, one slightly larger). I have all the playbills from the plays I was in and I still keep them because that was important to me. I kept very few letters (it took a few years to get rid of them though). The ones I kept had little poems (cause we all paid attention in English class!) or song lyrics or things like that, not real love letters. I kept one serious letter from a friend (we are no longer friends but the letter meant a great deal to me at the time, so I keep it for that). I got dumped before jr prom so I have nothing from that and sr prom I went to with my husband so I still have that. I have year books because it’s just entertaining (what did I think with that haircut!) and a few essays that I was really proud of at the time. I keep thinking “if I ever had kids, I can show them this stuff.” I was always fascinated with my parents old stuff. But again, it had to be really meaningful to make the cut.
By: rented life on December 20, 2008
at 2:18 am