What do you do with memories?
The bad ones you discard right away but what about the good ones?
Some become photos, some find their place in videos, some end up as trophies, certificates, or even memorabilia but what about the rest? What do you do with them?
Ok! Ok! I hear you guys. I am coming to the point.
A year and a half ago while I was busy making arrangements to shift houses, my father handed me a large green folder and said, "Son! now you decide what to do with these." The weight with which he delivered those words told me that there was something important in the folder.
When I looked inside, I was surprised to see my childhood report cards, newsletters & news paper cuttings which carried my name, my school id card, my first bus pass, birthday greeting cards the list goes on and on. My childhood flashed before my eyes and I was really happy to spend that afternoon glossing over all the folder contents. But the happiness soon gave way to a dilemma when I looked at the number of things I had to preserve.
Apart from the contents of the folder I also had a number of Toastmaster ribbons and commendation scrolls which had been waiting for their rightful place for a number of years. Placing all the items in a larger folder would solve my problem temporarily but hurt me in the long term as it would deprive me of the pleasure of viewing my little treasures. I needed something like an album; an album where all my memories could rest, thrive and come back to me whenever I needed them.
After thinking for the better part of a day, the answer suddenly stared me in the eye when I pulled out an old scrap book from the folder. In my school days all the students were encouraged to store their art and craft work in a scrap book for the work to be evaluated at the end of the year. That's it, the answer for my dilemma was none other than a scrap book. Yes! what was earlier a record of my art work would now serve as the repository for my life's work. Without further delay I quickly brought a scrap book and started the long but extremely fruitful task of saving my treasures. What started as a chore became an invaluable time pass and today my scrap book is one of my most valuable possessions.
So my dear friends, you must all be wondering that the moral of the story is to buy a scrap book whenever you have something to preserve? Wrong!
First of all ask yourself whether you are the type to treasure past memories? If you are really the busy kind who doesn't know whether there will ever be a time to look back or don't really care about looking back, do yourself a favor just chuck everything you plan to save and stay happy.
If on the other hand you are the preserving kind, then ask yourself whether you have any important items to save. Human beings hoard a lot of unnecessary things over a life time. What seems invaluable today looks utterly useless tomorrow. So before you decide upon buying a scrap book find out if you have a collection which will appeal to you a few years down the line. If none catches your eye just follow the chucking solution. If you are not sure then wait a few days and come back to the pile. Some items will automatically appear expendable now. Repeat the iteration every couple of days or once every week, soon you will be left with items you want to save or nothing at all. This is because not all items we collect age well with time and the human eye learns to catch these things once we introduce iterations as part of our retention strategy.
Once you have made up your mind to store some of the items you have, ask yourself what story you want your scrap book to portray? Your scrap book should reflect your personality and your taste of life. In essence your scrap book could:
The bad ones you discard right away but what about the good ones?
Some become photos, some find their place in videos, some end up as trophies, certificates, or even memorabilia but what about the rest? What do you do with them?
Ok! Ok! I hear you guys. I am coming to the point.
A year and a half ago while I was busy making arrangements to shift houses, my father handed me a large green folder and said, "Son! now you decide what to do with these." The weight with which he delivered those words told me that there was something important in the folder.
When I looked inside, I was surprised to see my childhood report cards, newsletters & news paper cuttings which carried my name, my school id card, my first bus pass, birthday greeting cards the list goes on and on. My childhood flashed before my eyes and I was really happy to spend that afternoon glossing over all the folder contents. But the happiness soon gave way to a dilemma when I looked at the number of things I had to preserve.
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| My Scrap Book |
Apart from the contents of the folder I also had a number of Toastmaster ribbons and commendation scrolls which had been waiting for their rightful place for a number of years. Placing all the items in a larger folder would solve my problem temporarily but hurt me in the long term as it would deprive me of the pleasure of viewing my little treasures. I needed something like an album; an album where all my memories could rest, thrive and come back to me whenever I needed them.
After thinking for the better part of a day, the answer suddenly stared me in the eye when I pulled out an old scrap book from the folder. In my school days all the students were encouraged to store their art and craft work in a scrap book for the work to be evaluated at the end of the year. That's it, the answer for my dilemma was none other than a scrap book. Yes! what was earlier a record of my art work would now serve as the repository for my life's work. Without further delay I quickly brought a scrap book and started the long but extremely fruitful task of saving my treasures. What started as a chore became an invaluable time pass and today my scrap book is one of my most valuable possessions.
So my dear friends, you must all be wondering that the moral of the story is to buy a scrap book whenever you have something to preserve? Wrong!
First of all ask yourself whether you are the type to treasure past memories? If you are really the busy kind who doesn't know whether there will ever be a time to look back or don't really care about looking back, do yourself a favor just chuck everything you plan to save and stay happy.
If on the other hand you are the preserving kind, then ask yourself whether you have any important items to save. Human beings hoard a lot of unnecessary things over a life time. What seems invaluable today looks utterly useless tomorrow. So before you decide upon buying a scrap book find out if you have a collection which will appeal to you a few years down the line. If none catches your eye just follow the chucking solution. If you are not sure then wait a few days and come back to the pile. Some items will automatically appear expendable now. Repeat the iteration every couple of days or once every week, soon you will be left with items you want to save or nothing at all. This is because not all items we collect age well with time and the human eye learns to catch these things once we introduce iterations as part of our retention strategy.
Once you have made up your mind to store some of the items you have, ask yourself what story you want your scrap book to portray? Your scrap book should reflect your personality and your taste of life. In essence your scrap book could:
- Be a memoir of all the events which changed your life
- Be a record of all the sweet nothings you exchanged with your friends or those special ones (Ahem Ahem!)
- Be a diary of all the dreams you ticked on your bucket list
- Be a journal of your journey to the top
- Or just be a collection of everything that was important to you, more like a memory album
Whatever be the format, a scrap book should reflect you whenever you share it with someone (remember that someone just can't be anyone). Scrap books are intensely private they are not for everyone's eyes so keep them away and only bring them out when your heart says 'Yes'. So folks we are done with laying down the rules, the ball is in your court now and I have a great slogan to get you started off on your journey 'To Scrap or not to Scrap'. Yes that very slogan will make the good old William Shakespeare proud.
Before I leave, here's one last thought. Many decades down the line when you are no longer working, when your children are settled, when there's hardly anyone to stroke your vanity, you might be tempted to assess how effective your life had been. The answer for that analysis might well be available in a scrap book you preserve today. I wish all of you lead a life which answer's tomorrow's questions but not one which raises more questions for tomorrow.
Until Next Time,
Your Life Guru,
J.J. Chaitanya
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