As I drove past my high school over spring break, Jay Z’s “Young Forever” came on the radio. With my 2010 graduation tassel hanging from my rear view mirror, it was as if my life was a scene straight out of American Reunion. Like Stiffler and the rest of the American Pie crew, my long weekend home this year was an experience unlike any other, although in a slightly different way than theirs. When I pulled into the parking lot of my favorite coffee shop, I instantly felt out of place and disconnected from my hometown. Due to Wisconsin’s late spring break, it was the first time in almost two years I had no one to return home to besides my family. It has been one year and eleven months (give or take a few days) since I walked through the halls of my school as a high school student.
The realization hit me that with each semester, I drift farther and farther away from my high school days. Yet, my bedroom is still filled with dozens of things that remind me of those four years: an article when the boys’ soccer team won the state finals, the ribbon I wore in my hair during a dance competition, a drawing from art class. My room is almost exactly as it was during my senior year. When is it time to move on from high school? Is it time to take down the sash from my 16th birthday? What about that picture with a once was best friend? Does graduation and going off to college mean forgetting? Below are four items almost every collegiette is bound to have lying around their room. So one question remains: to trash or to treasure?
Yearbook/Pictures: TREASURE
Everyone wants to be able to show their children that cute senior they had a crush on freshmen year or the horrible hair day they had on picture day. Hold on to your yearbooks and faded photographs for that summer night when you’re feeling especially nostalgic.
Love Letters: TREASURE
Regardless of how things ended, keep letters from that special someone. Maybe he’s the one that got away, maybe he’s not. Maybe you’ll marry your high school sweetheart, maybe you two will never speak again. Keep the letters anyway. They are a reminder of what was once important in your life and how someone else once made you feel.
Clothing: TRASH
That shirt you wore the first day of freshmen year, get rid of it! I’m guilty of this. The black and white flowered tank top I wore on my first day of high school is still hanging in the back of my closet at home. I haven’t worn it in at least two years, and I will never wear it again. Time to throw out (or better yet, donate) anything that hasn’t been worn in the last 18 months.
Notebooks: TRASH
Yes, we save our notes and binders to pass down to younger students, but if you’re like me, chances are the number of people you know still in high school is slim. Be honest, you never looked at your physics notes in high school, so what need could you possibly have for them now!
As my sophomore year of college draws to an end, I’ve come to what I have started to call the “mid-college crisis.” That awkward time when you start to realize how far away high school really was. That moment when walking through your hometown makes you feel oddly old. Although we’re in the midst of the best years of our lives, we all have those days where we wish we were back in high school. Why? Because that’s where it all started. The friendships, the heartbreaks, the dreams, our lives.
Have anything else to add to the list? Leave a comment below!