How Do You Decide?

My sister is going through a bunch of her childhood personal items. They have been in storage in a room they weren’t using for anything but that. The room is now being turned into a bedroom for my oldest nephew. She wasn’t sure of what to get rid of, and so she posed the question the other day, “How do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of?”

I know how she feels, because I have to do the same thing. It’s not that I hold onto that stuff- things from my childhood because I think I’m going to decorate my apartment with it. No, I keep it because I think, “What if I someday have a daughter? Some of this could go in her room.” And part of it is because I don’t know what was my grandmother’s (now deceased), or what my parents had given me as a gift when I was a child. I asked my mom to sit down with me someday and go through it all. I’m sure it will still be hard, but it will be needed. It’s just taking up space that could be used for other things.

It is a tough choice, deciding what to get rid of, and deciding what stays. The same goes with Facebook. I go through my friends’ list every so often and ask myself, “How do I know who stays and who goes?” I hate offending anyone, but at the same time, if we don’t interact, there is no point in being friends.

I'm not the type of person that keeps people on Facebook just to see what they are doing in life. I use it as a way of keeping in touch with people, but I don’t want that to be my only form of communication with them. For most, I communicate with them in life, as well. I do have classmates on there that I thought would be nice to keep in touch with. Have I, though? No. So I just went through my friends list, and deleted anyone that I haven’t talked to in quite a long time. I feel bad about doing it (at least one was a good friend at one time-but we haven’t spoken in quite awhile), but it’s just unnecessary people knowing more about things in my life. I don’t mean to say it that way, but it’s true. And I’m okay with a smaller list. I don’t need to have everyone on my list, anyway.

My mom and I were just talking about that last night. It’s scary how much people put out there on Facebook- not something I am trying to do. However, I do know I take lots of pictures of my nephews. Mostly, it’s for my mom and sis, who aren’t as familiar as I am with uploading pictures. I think I will eventually edit some out. Just way too many pictures of them out there.

Facing Fear

In life, there are certain things that we always fear. But we are all programmed differently, so that we don’t all fear the same thing-s-. (Side note, every time I tried to put the s in parentheses, it gave me a moon, and I didn’t want that. )

I do believe we are meant to face those fears at some point in our lives. For awhile, I had a fear of death. Then my Grandfather died, and I stopped fearing the unknown. I began to be okay with death. Because it’s not a final goodbye. I will see my loved ones again.

Another fear I have is spiders.

As I sit here and type, I am not sure if a small one went into my laptop or not. He came down from the ceiling and I swatted him, and now I am not sure where he went. Normally, I’d be away from here, refusing to return until he made HIS return. I have chills at the moment just thinking about him. That always happens when I see a spider. However, I am facing my fear and sitting here.

Or, I used to be afraid of thunderstorms, always thinking that storm would lead to something worse. Don’t get me wrong, when we had bad weather this summer, it was scary. But I wasn’t afraid. I stopped fearing storms a few years ago. I don’t really like them, but I can deal with them a lot better.

I think when I was younger and afraid of certain things, it didn’t allow me to enjoy other things in life. By facing my fears, I have found a new appreciation for things in life, I have gained strength. I may not like something, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t do it, push myself to get around that fear so I am not afraid anymore.