So I went through my entire room today in preparation for the big move. I took down posters and pictures from my walls, I cleaned out my closet, I sorted through all of my clothes, and I went through every drawer in my vanity/dresser.
The good stuff I kept, the old stuff I gave away, and the sentimental stuff I organized and stored in shoe boxes in my closet.
There are a lot of shoe boxes.
So I decided to write about the top five (in no particular order.) Top meaning the ones with the most impact in my life, good or bad.

1) Pictures, pictures, pictures. I had a huge bulletin board on my wall with a massive collage of pictures of all my friends. Now piled together in a fairly large shoe box are captured moments of church trips, proms, birthday parties, homecomings, and nights out with the girls. It was awkwardly emotional to fill and close that box.
2) Trips. This one was fun. I've kept pictures, menus, ticket stubs, and currencies from all the exciting places I've been. I added a lot today with all my london/paris stuff. I'm glad I kept so much so I'll remember all the different tourist attractions I saw and crazy interesting people I met. I gotta say I feel pretty lucky to only be 18 and have seen so much. And after my cruise next week with my friends I'll have some more to squeeze in the box which is pretty cool.
3) Family. My family, immediate and extended, is pretty cool about memories and such. My grandparents are really into geneology so I have a lot of information about that, which I like. Apparently I'm related to Patrick Henry (Mr. "give me liberty or give me death" guy). I also have a quilt that was passed down from my grandma...it doesnt quite fit in the shoe box but it still counts...and a ring that was my great great grandmas engagement ring. I think thats really really cool. My family is really really cool.
4) Chris. I had a drawer in my vanity where I kept all my chris stuff. I hadn't opened it in quite some time, which was smart, but today I was forced to. The idea was to transfer it all into the box without looking...but it didnt exactly work out that way. Instead I spent a good hour going through it all. There were old concert tickets and movie stubs. There were pictures, old tickets from the state fair, small stuffed animals, and even some dried up flowers. And then there were letters. He wrote me letters while he was in school. He wrote me letters while I was in Holland. He wrote me cards for birthdays and anniversaries. He even wrote me a list of 100 reasons why he loved me. (I know, I know, please try not to puke.) I'm sure its grossly cheesy and ridiculous and fake to everyone else but to us it was real... at the time. Real and strong and intense. But now its a shoe box. And thats okay.
5) College. Junior and senior year I got ridiculous amounts of college letters in the mail on a daily basis. Most of them I threw away, but the good ones I kept. Obviously all the Auburn ones. But also the fun ones like harvard and duke and yale. I would have never been accepted to those schools but I loved getting the letters so I kept them. I also kept all the scholarship letters I got. I like this box. It makes me excited. 18 days. =]

So my room is bare and boring and strange. But it's all part of the process I guess. It's getting close and scary and real and exciting. But I'm so ready to go. Lets just say I'm looking forward to looking back on these days.