My remodeling caper precipitated a rare burst of cleaning and consolidation on my part. Amazing how much “stuff” you accumulate in a couple of decades without even trying.
I’m going through a bunch of boxes and realizing that I’ve picked up more than my fair share of statements, and addenda, and advertising, and plane ticket receipts, and pay stubs, and who knows what else.
“throw away your bank statements and keep love letters” goes a line from a popular advice column. Ain’t that the truth? My paper shredder is getting a workout.
I get past the miscellaneous papers layer and get into some books and manuals. College textbooks that I thought would help me in my post collegiate career, magazines I saved from 20 years ago because they had one interesting article. Then I find my engineering notebooks.
Among other things I had been in engineering school for a year. Aerospace Engineering to be exact. I was going to be a rocket scientist. This was part of my “flying” phase that I passed through during my teens. I was all about airplanes. I wanted to fly them, I wanted to build them, I wanted to do nothing but talk planes all day and night.
I would go to the library and pore over the latest copy of “Jane’s All the world’s aircraft” and read and re-read every section till I memorized the vital statistics of every plane I saw. I would hang around the engineering building and talk rockets with professors all the time. My life was aerospace engineering.
But after a year I found that I was really not cut out to be a pilot or an engineer. My eyes weren’t up to snuff to be a fighter pilot or a test pilot. My mathematical ability wasn’t up to the advanced calculus required for the theoretical maths necessary for the latest air designs.
So after my freshman year I quit engineering school and moved over to the geosciences and finally found my way into geography. A big change, I know. But it felt right and I can’t say that I regretted the decision.
I’ve never looked back or longed to go back to that career. I’ve kept these books and airplane plans mainly due to inertia. They’ve followed me round from place to place and survived past cullings. Every time I do one of these ‘cleanings’, one or more items from my old life go into the trash. Most if not all of it will end up in the garbage this time.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed my time as an engineer. If I would have had the skill to make a go of it I would have been an engineer or a pilot right now and maybe I wouldn’t be writing this blog.
I’ve broken away from several other interests over the year and I don’t regret letting go of them. At some point you have to let go of the last vestiges of that old life to make room for the new.
Besides which, these are “things”, physical things. They’re not that important. That advice is correct. Throw away those old bank statements (things) and keep the love letters (friends and family). With luck and some care I have maybe another forty of fifty years of life left.
I have enough time to get more things, I can develop more interests, I can accumulate the detritus of life all over again. The people though. Those I intend to keep.
Recent Comments