It’s been raining every day lately, cold and wet winter days, makes me want to snuggle in my warm bed and do nothing all day. I always feel nostalgic in gloomy weather, thinking of the sound of heavy rain drops on the roof when I was a kid. Sweet memories.
In a nostalgic mood lately. I was chatting with Davin (who writes about his new life in Canada, with lots of interesting photos) over MSN and we started talking about our childhood and the things we used to collect in those years. Why someone so young is so nostalgic, I wonder? Maybe he has an old soul? Just joking Davin. (Eh, did I just imply that I’m old? NO! I’m youthful, I’m full of youth!)
Anyway, I digressed. As a young teenager, I used to collect a lot of things. From the usual stamps, first day covers, erasers, stickers to the unusual tissue paper wrapper. Major head-scratching moment on the last one. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s those wrappers from small individual packaged tissue paper packs. Haha, lidat also want to collect. But you’d be amazed the various designs they used to produced back then. Not sure whether they still do, haven’t used those tissue packs for a long time. My collection was up to the hundred mark I think. I collected them from my friends and family, then flatten them in between pages of heavy books. It was quite a ‘in’ thing to do amongst the girls then.
Of course, let’s not forget about the ever-so-popular stamps and first day covers. I spent many years in my childhood collecting them. Well, I’m sure many have. Though towards the end it was not so much of me collecting but my mom. Heh. All these collections are neatly kept in stamp books and first day cover holders, and kept in a big box back at home now. I call it a box of memories. Along with the stamps and first day covers, are books of stickers, diary(heh, girly talks), some souvenirs, yearbooks, old address books, photos, letters and postcards. Every time I go back, I would open the box and look through its contents for hours, reminiscing the old days. Every single item in there represents a feeling, a momentous, a story, a part of me. They remind me the different facets of my life that I’ve been through.
Ever since I come to New Zealand, I’ve been keeping a box too. Inside, there are letters, postcards, dried leaves(yes, I collected those), dairy, photos and more letters. I used to write a lot when I first came here, when I was a lonely student with some language barrier. Not anymore, since I made new friends and abandoned those back home. Haha, joking! Everybody just became lazy and stopped writing eventually. Well, we still do every now and then. Just not the mountainous volume that was back then.
I treasure these boxes of memories dearly. For I imagine to pass them to my children one day, maybe many years down the road, when I have become an old lady. To let them know of my days and thoughts. To serve as some sort of memoir, a mark of my existence.
Memories, good and bad, all be treasured, all be buried in the deepest of my heart.
memories nostalgia hobby
