Moving into my new apartment over the past two weeks has been an opportunity for nostalgic recollections of my 90’s childhood and university education.

The piles of ‘stuff’ which evoke these memories have less than $0 dollars in current day market value. They are more encumbrance than anything; they include an ancient Sega Genesis system and games (e.g. B.O.B.), old fiction novels (e.g. Tailchaser’s Song by Tad Williams), and piles of paper from my six years of university education (if my calculations are to be believed, a total value of $54,000 in paper). My mom even found some of my old Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and Beadie craft patterns (these are children’s crafts made entirely of string and beads).

Since these piles of detritus are not important to anyone but me, I enjoy re-experiencing them and thinking back to my perspectives on life when I was that age. When I was 11 or 12 playing Sega Genesis games, I had a complete innocence about the world; when I was 19 or 20 in university classes, I had a deep anxiety about the world. These states of being have led me to where I am today. I’m sure that ten years down the road, I’ll have a whole new set of experiences to reflect back on.

Someday I will go through the piles of memories that my mother and grandmothers have kept throughout the course of their lives. We all keep diaries, and our collective memories will be shared between generations. My journals and blog entries will contribute to an understanding of who I was over my lifetime, to be shared with future family members.

Although I often get upset that my family has a serious case of ‘pack rat‘-ism (here’s looking at you, Dad), I can appreciate that these memories are nice to keep and reflect back upon during times of change in life.

Do you have any objects which encapsulate, for you, specific periods of life? If so, where do you keep them? Do you intend to keep them for your own personal memory bank or share with future family members? Leave your comments below to start the conversation!