Memories

This past weekend I went through some old boxes from my parents' house. It was so weird to go through all of my high school memories, and some even older than that! These boxes were filled with old notes from friends, hilarious journals from middle school, sewing projects, and photos. I also came across about a billion ticket stubs to various movies, concerts, and high school musicals. Don't ask me why I saved all of them, but it was fun going through and seeing all the different movies I saw in theaters. Teenagers see SO many movies it's ridiculous! Take a peek at some of the things I found.

Notes written in class and passed in the hallways to my friends,

all kept in a priceless homemade memory box from a good friend

Yearbooks! I have yet to leaf through these.

My now 10-year-old doggy as a 1-year-old pup

A matching mother-daughter picture. Love this so much!

Of course a good amount of things had to be tossed...

(yes, I used to cross-stitch. maybe I'll show you some of my lovely finished projects another time)

 But there are some things I would never, ever, ever throw away.

Like this decorative rack, hand-painted by my grandmother for my nursery.

She passed away when I was 5, and I love that I have this keepsake from her.

It makes me want to name my daughter Laura just so I can put it up in her nursery.

Things like this make me cherish the memories that made me who I am today. They make me thankful for the full life that I have lived, all due to my parents, siblings, friends, and experiences that influenced me so much. These things also make me thankful for where I am today. One day I will look back on my 20s, fondly I hope, and think of these times as "the past." What will I remember? What will I not remember? I'm realizing that what I do every day is me adding pages to my story. So every day really counts. Because pages add up to chapters, and chapters compile the book. I hope one day I'm proud of the way I'm living right now. Mostly, I hope I remember. At least the good things anyway.