Here is something that I've mentioned on this blog in the past, and said that I'd get around to doing one-of-these-days. Well, the day has come.
You see, one of the things I've kept that takes up a lot of room are my papers from school. I went to 4 years of a private high school, and combined 5 years of both college and graduate school. And I have saved every piece of paper from all of that. And I do mean EVERY piece. Anything I could take home with me, I saved. Every corrected homework assignment, quiz, test, term paper, class notes...you name it.
And I know why I've kept it all. It's because academia has been a major part of my life. My LIFE was in all of those books. The time and effort of my teenage years that I put into schoolwork was unmatched. Not to mention all that tuition money. These boxes upon boxes of papers were evidence of all that. To throw them away was to throw away something I'd spent all to much for, in more ways than one. Never mind the whole feat of simply having a complete academic collection.
But then you have to ask yourself: do I REALLY need to keep that quiz on Othello from my high school sophomore English class? The one that I got a "C-" on? If somebody secretly broke into my storage closet and stole it without leaving a trace behind, would I ever know it was gone?
I kept telling myself that "someday" I'd get around to looking through this and reading it. But when the "someday" hasn't happened in 20 years, it may be safe to say that it simply won't happen. This is especially true in the day and age when information on any subject is only a mouse click away.
So how do you get rid of the clutter, but keep the EVIDENCE? Here's my answer:
1. Stack up all the boxes
2. Take photos:
3. Throw away the papers
4. Keep the photos
I did admittedly keep one of the boxes, namely all of my notes and what not from all my mathematics classes. That was after all what I majored in. But one box is certainly easier to deal with than seven.
I also had a lot of fun going through everything before I threw it away. I'm glad I did go through it too, because there was a lot that needed to be shredded. I'll post more oddities within the next couple of days.
