It's just "stuff"...right?

Ok, seriously- This past week I've been hitting my stash of "stuff" pretty hard. All in attempts to get it cleaned out and given a thorough go through. Honestly I don't know why I have felt the need to keep all of this junk-only to say i'm an extremely sentimental person. My house is by no means like an episode of Hoarders-even though my brother likes to tease me as such. However both Spud and I have WAY to much stuff. So with our lives up in the air-I knew I was way over due to open up my many totes and see how full I could make the garbage.

Honestly this has been a great-but painstaking process. I have felt a slew of emotions as I sift through the cards, papers, notebooks, ticket stubs, pictures, documents and things that don't even have a category. I've been reminded of the person I was in those formative teenage years psychotic as well as the friendships that I treasure, the ones that went though tough times and have seen redemption and those that are no longer. I've had a lot of "I wonder what happened to them" or "wow, why was I so retarded." However I still see the "me" that is between the lines...I'm still a nerd, have anger management issues, selfish and still overly sensitive-I still love to laugh, can still have my moments of total silliness, and a genuine love and compassion for people.

Sometimes I miss those days-the fun with friends, late nights at Perkins, driving around listening to music in the small simple towns I called home...and even though there are many things I would do differently- I don't think I would ever go back...there are plenty of horrible memories to balance out the good. Even though I'm not sure what this coming year holds for my family-I know I have them and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

The road may not have been perfect getting to this point, but each step has molded me into who I am today-and the events in my life will continue to mold me into who I am becoming.

Life is a beautiful process-the ebbs and flows, the ups and downs, and the faces along the way...




Seriously---it's bad people.