Isn't it funny how we were once small human beings? We look back on shoes and clothes that used to fit us, and we wonder how we (now adults) ever managed to fit into those clothes.
These past few weeks have been extremely stressful for me, even though my parents were the ones moving. I wanted to help them with their move as much as possible, so I started by clearing out my room. Little did I know it would take me more than a month to clean it out.
Because I had moved out a while ago from my parents' house, I had left my room untouched for many years. I am currently 26, but it looked like a child still lived there.
During these weeks, I had dedicated one Saturday to clearing my room out a little bit at a time. Something I learned was that it was hard to part with some things. In the beginning, I spent a lot of time reminiscing and seeing things that brought back memories. However, as time went on, I found it easier to separate what I wanted from what no longer served me. Although something was nice, I asked myself if it was really necessary to keep.
This made me realize how much my mindset had shifted and how I chose to be more minimalistic. I ended up throwing away a lot of things that I accumulated over the years of my life, and donating the ones that were still useful to the less fortunate. This made me think about how clothes aren't the only things we outgrow in our lifetime.
In my clean-up journey, I found old diaries, old pictures, and drawings from old friends. I saw my past life and my past self, and I realized just how much I had grown not just physically but mentally. Although I consider myself to be a kid at heart, I am a lot wiser than I was even a year ago, so I have certainly evolved over the span of 20 years.
The truth is we accumulate a lot of things in our lifetime and it is normal to outgrow them. We get older and our tastes in music change, our fashion sense changes, and, most of all, our mindset changes. Throughout these stages in our lives, it is important to acknowledge that we will always be changing and growth happens everyday. In reality, we may look back and see we have grown up a lot since we were little, but a lot of growing happens even during adulthood.
A lot of clothes that I had were no longer my style, but I felt good in knowing they would be donated to a good cause and to someone in need. The same could be said about life lessons. Like clothes, we can pass on our life lessons to others who may not have learned them yet. We can pass on our knowledge and, in turn, help others.
In the end, my room has been cleared out and some items are now with me in my apartment. However, this experience has given me a lot of perspective into how growing up affects our lives and ourselves.
It made me grateful for all that I had, and I took the time to thank my parents for all that they did for me, and continue doing for me. Growing up gives us a greater sense of gratitude and understanding of our parents. We are able to put ourselves in another person's shoes, and we develop a sense of compassion and understanding. We also learn that some events in our past may have hurt us, but they do not have to rule us. We are the people we are today because of what happened to us, but we should choose to continue moving forward. My diaries were proof that I was a very different person than I am now. Although it is nice to reminisce, it is also fascinating to know how much a person can change mentally depending on the events in their life.
So when you look back at old pictures and old diaries, remember the old you, but also feel thankful for all that you have been through. You are a sum of the experiences in your life, and although they do not control you, the lessons you learned from them are priceless. They can be passed on from generation to generation, and even to strangers in the hopes of helping them if they encounter hardship.
In the end, growth is a natural part of life and this experience has made me realize that. Although I am sad to see my childhood home is sold and now relatively empty, I know that I am moving forward and so are my parents. In every stage of life, we are always growing and we must learn to appreciate the process.
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