The boxes have arrived!
Monday, June 19, 2006
The boxes have arrived... again. This is the second time we're moving in one and a half years. But I think this time is better 'cos in the first round we had already filtered and thrown away most of the stuff that were rendered junk, thus during this second round, we have fewer things to pack. And this time is easier for me too, 'cos I found it easier to be heartless with my stuff. I usually get very nostalgic when I pack my room, even during spring cleaning, and won't bear to throw away things.
That's the main reason why I hate to pack. I have so many things I used to collect as a kid that I can't bear to throw because they contain memories for me. I'm like an old junkie who collects everything and anything. From stickers to stamps to letters to postcards to phone cards to wine bottle corks to one-cent coins. (Is there anything I don't collect?) I also still keep my chemistry and biology test tubes from JC, and my primary school diaries (haha!), yup complete with that ugly primary school kid scrawling and
bad spelling. I also have my art and craft stuff i.e. paintbrushes, paints, pencils, from secondary school. The only things I found easiest to pack were my books. I'll never have to throw them away because I can still read them, so in that sense they have some value and such.
I have at least 5 boxes of letters, which I'm going to sieve through and get rid of half at least. I don't want to but I can't think of anywhere I can put them plus I don't think I will read them again, especially those little notes from secondary school days that go: "Hi Mitch, Physics is boring me. What are you doing? Love, XXX." or "Hi! Just wanna write to give you a hug :) Love, XXX." Well, we were bored in secondary school, and Valentine's day were days when people went out giving little notes of love and gifts (usually candy or chocolate) to classmates, close friends etc. It made you feel like you were important even if you didn't have a date on that day. *Note: I was in an all-girls school. Maybe that will explain something.
I guess that kind of was lost in JC, at least in my old boring JC (ha!), and in NUS, Valentine's day became a commercialised place to sell flowers at exorbitant prices, and for both the girls and guys to show off: the guys by buying expensive flowers for their girlfriends, and the girls by holding their expensive flowers like umbrellas. You know how you normally raise your umbrella slightly above your shoulder to shelter you from the rain? Yup it certainly looked like that, except they were holding it with
both hands. And I guess it didn't help that some faculties *ahemartsahem* tried to heighten the atmosphere by sticking red and white heart-shaped balloons at the corridor, where most people will walk past.
Anyway to bring it back to the main topic, so pretty much after secondary school, the number of letters I received every year declined and it went down to almost nothing in NUS, because people have stopped writing letters altogether. I mean, SMSes and emails were much faster and electronic, which means you can save space and also save money. I think it's sad that we have somehow lost it because the tradition of letter writing is enjoyable for both the giver and the receiver. Or perhaps I should say that it's so rare nowadays to be receiving letters that when you actually get a handwritten letter from someone, it's almost like striking 4D. Hmm.. or maybe one of those consolation wins, a few tens kind.
11:34 am
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