All Boxed Up

The long weekend provided ample time for me to do some spring cleaning action in my room, and that’s when I chanced upon a dusty metal box that has been left aside in one of my closets, untouched for five years. I immediately recognized it; it was the box filled with some of the fondest college mementos which I collected during my four years in the university – studio shots of me with my barkada taken during freshman year and every year thereafter, graduation pictures, baccalaureate mass and graduation rites, chocolate wrappers, a pack of DJ Mix cigarettes, roll-on perfume, recollection and retreat letters from friends and classmates, receipts and recorded sound effects used during the Shakespeare comedy which I directed and starring half of the class, tags of my very first set of corporate attires used during my OJT days, a half-empty lipstick (My very first!), padlocks used during PE time at the university gym, 3.5” diskettes of school projects, bottle caps, pen, bracelets given by my girls, laboratory ID, X-Men trading cards, love letters from an old sweetheart, and lots more.

All boxed up! ^_^

*Sigh*

While it took me some time to recall the story behind some items, the poignant memories are those of the pictures and letters that I can’t help but reread each one of them. Some of the letters were funny, others were touching, and then there were those that made me cry and laugh at the same time. It was in college that I found some of the few people whom I can really call my friends. At a time when we were very experimental and we found ourselves in sticky situations against our better judgement, we stood out for each other, thus making us each other’s best allies. And even now that we have gone out of the confines of the university, the friendship has always been there and the lessons learned have remained etched into the person that we are now. BCS 41, as our section is *ehem* fondly called by our professors and peers, is truly one of a kind. I feel lucky to have been part of such a perky and diverse class, and I know I could not have belonged anywhere else.

The before-and-after-five-years effect. :)

I spent half of the day looking at each content of the box until it was finally time to put them all back inside the box. Who knows how many years the box would be left untouched again. Four? Five? Decades, even. But the years don’t really matter, actually; the memories stay in the heart where I keep them. Always. :)