Making Room

In what seemed like a day, I made the decision to finally leave roommate housing behind and find a place all on my own. After a few weeks of looking, something popped up that felt nothing short of fate. My soon-to-be-home is small, and to some, may seem incredibly cramped and sparse all at the same time. But with a fridge entirely to myself and more than one shelf in the pantry to stock, I am already salivating at the available space to reinvent myself and my habits.

In an effort to simplify, cleanse, and prepare for my new space, I have been in a fit of organization. Each thing I own has been carefully sized up as I ask myself what "things" have become "stuff" and what "stuff" is really just "junk." Belongings that were once kept in shoe boxes under my bed (which created waves of guilt when I realized just how many shoe boxes there were) now have a neat, designated container. A little box for hardware. A little box for important papers. A little box with my shoe shining kit (a gift from an old school dad). A little box with cards people have given me. In putting everything in its place, I became soaked in nostalgia. The photographs, birthday cards, and what I now realize are real love letters put me on a merry-go-round of memories. The pictures showed outfits I could barely afford in college but bought anyway for that one special date. They showed my first car with chipped paint, campfire double dates, international movie nights on couches that couldn't have been sanitary, and late night dinners at stale breakfast spots. They showed me crushes I hadn't thought about in years and great loves I won't forget in years.

As I sat there, I started to feel indebted to all of the things strewn across my floor. All of my experiences, the ones that stung and the ones that sung, had given me the confidence to sign the lease agreement on my desk. Each good, great, and awful moment proved to me that I can move somewhere with an unplanted flower garden, a bare kitchen, and a very empty living room (which might be empty for a while longer considering my shoe purchases), and that I fully believe I will populate these new spaces with things that are grand.

21 more days.