Memory Lane

Do you keep a memory box? You know, the little box where you store all those little keepsakes like a picture of you and your best friend when you were twelve, a ticket stub from your first movie date, a letter your grandmother gave you...those kinds of things. Well, I do. Or I did anyways. You'd think I'd be more sentimental about those things now that I have children but I guess I'm still pretty sentimental, I'm just too preoccupied with the children themselves to remember to save everything!

 Memory Boxes

Back when I was a kid, probably say, pre-teen up until having my own kids, I kept all sorts of things like that! I eventually bought these two big red hat boxes and deemed them my 'memory boxes'. I had a big one to store all my 'friend' items and the smaller one held all my 'boyfriend' items once Eric and I met. I would hold on to all kinds of pictures, (because back then we actually printed them) mini golf score cards from dates, funny birthday cards from friends, little notes folded into footballs from back in highschool, I even saved a napkin from Applebees because it was Eric and I's favorite spot when we started dating! Overboard? Maybe. But it was sweet and I always loved getting home and tucking them away in their safe place, and then pulling them out on a rainy day or when I needed a reminder of just how great my life was. As my life changed with time, so did my memory boxes. What was once my small 'Eric' box, soon became overflowing with keepsakes and my 'friend' box slowly started to look a little lacking. I felt somewhat guilty when I noticed, but with time I decided that it was okay to swap them and in a way it represented my life too. Not that I didn't love my friends just as much, but I guess that's what happens when you start to grow up and find relationships, right? 

Life changes...but with my little boxes there to remind me, the memories don't. It was sort of comforting at times. As I get older and my life is different, it's kind of nice to remember what's in those boxes and a time when everything was just that way. I still have my memory boxes stored away and every now and then I go digging in the basement and pull them out for a walk down memory lane. Care to take a stroll with me??