Packing My Life Away : Trips through Memory Lane

The hubs and I are buying a house! We are most definitely moving, and starting a new chapter of our lives as home owners. We are ever so grateful for the 7 years (2012-2019) we spent living abroad in temporary and small apartments around the world because this led us to living minimalist lives. We had to be able to get up and move easily with only 2 pieces of luggage each. We lived 7 years without a couch because we never knew if we were going to move in a few months. Living in Korea and Japan, it wasn't so uncommon to live life on the floors either.

Hubs and I left Japan in April 2019, and we lived in my parent's basement apartment temporarily. Well, we thought it would be temporary, but then the pandemic happened, and we holed up for an extra year longer than we thought. We'll always be grateful that we had the chance to save money and get a feel for American life with this safety blanket.

And so we pack, once again. You would think it's easy for us. For almost 9 years, we've been on the go constantly. It's a bit different for me. My parents have had this home since I was in high school. I've stored some knickknacks here that I thought I could always store here. Today, I came across a few posters!! These were posters I used to stick on my classroom walls when I was a Spanish teacher in a high school in Brooklyn. It feels like ages ago. November 2011 was the last time I was officially a Spanish high school teacher. I had started that profession in 2005.

I bought this poster in a street market in Barcelona in 2009. It looks like a cool dance performance poster, and the street vendor was able to print my name on it. I used to have very black hair, and I thought I almost looked like the dancer in the photo. I thought it would be a great cultural memory that I could use to decorate my classroom.

The next two posters were collages of some amazing trips that I went on. For me, they were life changing, and I hope that they were life changing for my students as well. Years ago, when I was younger, I had the determination and courage to take 10-20 students on international trips! I planned and chaperoned three international trips with my students. We went to Costa Rica and Guatemala. We laughed and joked, and had fun adventures - like climbing up an active volcano, racing on sea kayaks and capsizing, ziplining, beach horse riding and having a runaway horse walk THROUGH a restaurant (there was a student on the horse).

I looked at these pictures with happiness. I remembered the pride I had in being a Spanish teacher. I made these posters so that I could hang them up in my classroom to inspire each student in my classes to travel and see the world. I could feel my heart pounding at the mere memory of passion that I had. The last time I taught Spanish officially was November 2011. Since then, I've had two other careers. I became an ESL professor. And now, I have my own small business. I am not keeping these posters. I am a minimalist. I took the photos to keep electronically, but I don't like the idea of keeping dusty posters in storage. I have the electronic photos and the memories to keep that past alive, but that's the thing. It's the past. Holding on to laminated plastic isn't going to keep the memory of me alive.

Sometimes people ask me, "Why aren't you a Spanish teacher anymore? You have a degree in it. Why waste a degree?"

Everyone changes. Some people are not meant to have one career for their entire lives. I loved teaching Spanish so much, and I loved my students, but I am simply not that spry energetic teacher anymore. I had so much passion, and I gave my heart to the job. And then, it was time to move, get another masters degree, live in another part of the world, and try a new profession. There is no such thing as a "wasted" degree. Education will always serve you. In addition, if I wasn't a Spanish teacher, I wouldn't have become an traveling ESL teacher. If I didn't live in Japan, perhaps I wouldn't have found reiki or had the time to have a jewelry making side gig. People change. People are always changing.

And so, I continue packing up, sorting, donating, and throwing out what doesn't serve me. I'm being very intentional about what items come into our new space. There must be an intention, and it must represent who I am now.

I know plenty of people who would have kept those posters! What about you? Do you keep these physical manifestations of memories? Would you discard them like I did?

**The photos are edited to protect the identity of the students.