Reminiscing

Warning: Non Fashion Related :)

Lately I have been doing a lot of dipping into the past. I guess I have just been on sensory memory overload. First off, I went to my hometown for a visit with my Mom and Aunt. We ate dim sum at our favorite old restaurant, Good Fortune, and I was just hit with all these memories of visits and family and childhood. It has been ten years since I have eaten at this Chinese restaurant, but nothing had changed...and everything had changed. The placemats, the same. The food, the same. The owner greeting us at the door, the same. The lobsters in tanks, still there kickin'. The only difference was me, and the presence of new and absence of old.

On our way home my sister and I decided to stop and take a look at our old neighborhoods. The same rang true for them. Different residents, new cars in the driveway, newly painted exteriors, but the same pizza place around the corner, and even some of the same neighbors. It was an equal mixture of happy and sad emotion.

My final foray into the past came upon me today when I started cleaning out my desk in my bedroom at home. I found pictures from vacations and camp, birthday cards, study guides, agenda books from high school, and many sweet letters from childhood friends whom I no longer know and grandparents who are no longer around.

This all has gotten me thinking how important it is that we keep track of our pasts and collect momentos of our time in all our walks of life. I have many memory boxes chock full of everything from ticket stubs to Bop magazine cutouts, and I know that someday I will go through them and really appreciate everything in my life. Its gratifying to reread the sweet and sincere things I wrote to others, and others wrote to me, and it's amazing to have photographs that capture important people and events throughout my life.