Pack Rats and a Bag of Memories

Alright, I wouldn't classify myself as an extreme pack rat to the point of compulsively hoarding every thing I ever owned. But I do like to hold on to random items that serve no purpose whatsoever.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with looking for one particular item and stumbling upon a treasure of past memories. Well, that's just what happened to me. I found some helpful items (like a pack of AAA batteries for my alarm clock) and some trash that I can't believe I ever got (like some figures of NBA stars that I bought out of a whim at a sale). I kept going through everything hoping to find what I was looking for until I stumbled upon a packet of papers. They were from some assignments I had in the beginning of senior year of high school.

I just get straight into the writing if it's an in-class writing assignment that serve no homework purposes. So I am assuming I am reading a class assignment about where I was in the college process. For those who do not know, I only applied to Syracuse University (early decision'ed). I'm reading through this and I see all the schools that I was going to apply to: Temple University, Seton Hall University, Ithaca College, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Albany, and Marist College. I don't even know where Marist College is. I think my guidance counselor was urging me to apply there. There was an "update" at the bottom of the page noting that I decided to early decision for Syracuse.

There was also a "letter" we were to write to a classmate about a topic we were to choose from. I can't even read this letter without feeling embarrassed I ever wrote it. It's not that the content is bad, it's just the writing style. Then again, it was an in-class assignment. The topic I chose was my opinion of the world. I'm glad to say I still hold this view three years later. 90% of what I wrote was unnecessary rambling so I could make the letter seem long. Two sentences basically covered everything up: "People are too dependent on technology" and "Technology is the very essence that powers humanity". I don't even know what I meant by "the very essence" but it sounds smart for a high school assignment.

Up next is a "life list" I wrote (technically typed up). "See a real hippopotamus up close". That was 3rd on my list. It's true that hippos are my favorite animals, but I still can't believe that landed as the 3rd best thing I could think of for what I wanted to do in my life. Number 9 was a lot better in terms of achievements. I wanted/still want to be featured in a film. One of my regrets of high school was not being a part of any of the school plays. Every year I went to watch the plays my school performed and every year I thought how fun it would be to be on that stage.

The rest of the papers included in this package were completely random considering most of them are English assignments. SAT scores, Syracuse tuition, AP scores, etc.

...and I just realized I never found my item.