The Beginning

Internet, I have a problem: I lack the ability to throw things out. I keep everything for fear of forgetting anything. Old movie tickets line the side of my bookshelf. Eight boxes filled with my schoolwork - from second grade spelling tests to AP exam prompts to introductory fluid mechanics problem sets - enclose my bed on one side. Pictures from my middle school years watch over me from the other side of my bed (and who in their right mind willingly displays middle school pictures). After countless nagging, then pleading, from my parents, I decided I had to overcome my iron grip of these representations of my past and CLEAN MY ROOM.

As per my mom's suggestion, I'm going to take pictures of things I want to remember, but don't necessarily want to hold on to for the rest of my life. Due to the beauty of modern data storage, this plan lets me condense all of my awesomely weird artifacts into blog form, aka out of my room for-ev-er. I'll be posting the pictures here so that I can remember what I'd like, and one day I can point at what I'm sure will be an outdated blog and reminisce at my children about all the weird things I kept around in my room. So, without further ado, here is day 1 of cleaning.


This is the view of my room as you walk in, to the left. My personal favorite: the clown hanging from the ceiling, which I only just recently discovered was hanging there because I used to love it. I had been keeping it there because I thought my dad loved it... but more on that later.


Mmm, huge comfy bed. Not as comfy: the folded up mattress that lives on the bed, and the burning embarrassment caused by the pictures hanging over my bed. And yes: that IS my Yale acceptance poster, what.


And these would be those boxes I was talking about. Years of academic work! I can't wait to throw the majority of it away. It's all in my head, anyways, right?


The cone collection! And the completion of the mini tour-before-complete-cleaning. The various laundry items used to not be in my room, really, but then the washing machine made a hole in the floor, etc etc now it is all in my room.

Phew. Okay. That is what my room looked like as of 3:00 pm this afternoon. My first goal was to deal with the corner of my room with all the trophies and that pesky little clown:


Those trophies are every single trophy I have ever earned, whether athletics (mostly basketball, but a few softball trophies for good measure), music (first place at the National Orchestra Conference!), or academics (4.0 throughout middle school, high five!). I decided to keep one trophy for each category and donate the rest to Goodwill or the like. As for that clown...


Good lord, that is frightening. Story of the clown: once upon a time, I thought it would be highly desirable to have this paper mache demon clown in my room (purchased at my request by my father in some sort of beach town, I believe). Then, at some point, I started to fear how the clown always rotated, moving in slow circles above me as I tried to fall asleep. It was terrifying. Exactly why I never took it down, I might never know - but it's gone now, and it served its purpose well (its purpose being, of course, to keep me awake at night with its endless motion).

More pictures later. It feels good to write about these things. I don't know why I fear forgetting, but knowing my thoughts are down eases my anxiety.