~* CLEANING OUT MY CLOSET*~

I just realized that I am a sentimental pack rat. A couple of weeks ago, I started cleaning my room to free up some space for my new shoe cabinet (my dad made it for me--customized shape to exactly fit my room's wall and colored lavender!) and TV/component rack (we had it custom-built and painted lavender!). My clean-up project yielded tall stacks of old magazines, about 3 big black garbage bags of stuff to throw away, 30 empty shoe boxes and 2 big black garbage bags of stuff to give away.

I think I should stop accumulating those wedding/debut souvenirs. I swear, they're just sitting on my shelf, collecting dust! They're nice to look at but what exactly are their purpose? Wala lang, dba? Totally useless stuff. I must stop being senti about souvenirs. I even discarded some of my angel figurine collections save for some expensive ones and some of those given to me as a gift (Charo, I still have that cute angel figurine you gave me for my birthday!). I think my mom salvaged some of those figurines and put 'em on her dish garden. I also had to discard my stuffed toys and told my mom to donate it somewhere.

As I was sorting my things, I discovered that I still kept this essay I wrote for my English Lit. class back in college. I think it's coz I got an A in it and my EngLit professor marked certain parts with comments like "good point" and "good analogy". As I read it, I thought, wow, I really did a damn good job writing that paper! I also found this project I made for my Business Philiosophy subject -- clippings of various fallacies. I can't even remember all those different kinds of fallacies we studied back then.

I also had my medals segregated into "grade school", "high school" and "college". Then I had these thick envelopes marked "The Canossa School Experience" and "The DLSU Experience". On the Canossa envelope, I had a file of my report cards from Kindergarten til Fourth Year High School! Words like "diligent", "serious in her studies", "well-behaved", "good leader", "strives hard", "exerts more effort", "cooperative" appeared in my grade school report cards. Dang. I have a sneaking suspicion that I was a real geek back in elementary! Hiyuck. Also found my winner certificates for Spelling, Arts and Essay-writing contests. And ooh, my high school ID full of stickers and my "Canossian Peer Counselor" heart-shaped pin which used to be gold (now it's brown!). An interesting find was my CSAT (College Scholastic Aptitude Test) result -- I obviously suck in Mathematics! hehe. My percentile rank in Math was a sucky 67%! Ooh but I'm real proud of my English percentile rank: a swell 99%! Science was 96% and Inductive Reasoning was 83%. My General Scholastic Aptitude was 95%. I wonder if I'd still get a similar result if I took the very same aptitude test NOW. Hmmm. I also still kept the recognition day programs and that Lily newsletter write-up (by Abbie!) about my rock band Exordium back in high school.

On my DLSU envelope, I found my certificates for Marketing quiz bee and Accounting 1A Challenge. My Dean's Lister certificates were also still intact. And wow, I think ALL my course cards from first year til fourth year college were there! Even all my enrollment records showing all my subjects and even room number were also on file. In my entire college life, (and I still remember to this very day!!!) I only had two subjects wherein I got a 1.5 (our grading system had 4 as the highest) -- I first got 1.5 in Accounting 2A and I remember my professor was this lady called Ms. Payongayong. We used to call her "Umbrella-rella" behind her back. Hehe. The second AND last time I ever got 1.5 was in ComLaw1. Those terms sucked. I remember appealing to both of my professors coz I couldn't qualify for Dean's List even if my total average was technically qualified due to the grade they gave me. But, dammit, they're heartless professors!:p Oh well.

Another interesting find were my diaries dating as far back as 1990! My first diary back in Grade 6 had a Snoopy design. My succeeding diaries were notebooks which I jazzed up with graphics from magazines and stuff. I also kept this journal we were required to have in our Religion class back in high school. I read that journal and I can't believe I just bombarded my Religion teacher (he was Brother Noel if I remember right...) with detailed accounts of my screaming during intrams and getting "kilig" over my numerous high school crushes. Even the way I wrote in that journal was so... teeny-boppy and girly-girl giddy. Eww. Anyway, I guess I'm really into writing down my thoughts -- I started with a diary back in 1990 and I have been blogging since 2003.

I also have this box containing all the love letters I ever got back in high school and college. It was so heart-warming reading those stuff! Went teary-eyed on certain letters. And I can't believe how my love life progressed (wait, do you even call it a progress with the way things are so f***ed up now?!? haha!) to being a complicated ball of crap now when it seemed so simple, easy, untainted and pure back in those days. *sigh* I guess that's one of the trade-offs of being an adult. We have to strike a balance in thinking and making life-altering decisions with both our heart and mind. Logic and passion fighting inside your head.

To date, I have 32 pairs of footwear. That includes office shoes/sandals, rubber shoes and casual flats/clogs but excluding my flipflops. Am I abnormal? I don't know. I guess I am a shoe person. But now I resolve to avoid buying trendy inexpensive shoes in favor of expensive classic leather shoes. I'm thinking of it as an investment. And I am avoiding the problem of finding space for new shoes coz my new shoe cabinet can only hold exactly how much shoes I have now. If I buy a new one, I would have to let go of an old one. And I want soft cushioned soles now! I am tired of having tired feet at the end of the day! Yesterday, I started my new policy on shoe buying and bought myself a pair of tan-colored Naturalizer sandals :-) I'm hoping it would serve me for a veeeery long time for the freakin' price I paid for it! On my next credit card cycle, I am targeting to invest in good pairs of black and white sandals. That's all I need: brown, white and black shoes to go with my outfits. So far, as I shopped around, I narrowed down my options to only a few brands coz they're the ones with soft cushy soles: Naturalizer, Bass, Hush Puppies and some shoe labels in Rustans which I don't remember. Do you guys know of any other shoe labels with super cushy soles and genuine leather upper? Suggestions please! ;-) And what's with Brazil? I noticed that both Naturalizer and Bass are made in Brazil. Hmmm.

After cleaning and freeing up some space in the process, my room felt "light". I can't exactly put it into words but you know... like all that purging had made the "aura" of my room much better. I read from somewhere that getting rid of the clutter and mess can improve the "energy" or like the positive chi or something of one's room. I think it's true. I looove staying in my room more now.