Day 65: Nostalgiatown

As I was cleaning out some of my old stuff I took a moment (a lot of moments, actually) to look through everything and reminisce. There was a lot of neat - and weird - stuff in my memory stash: notebooks, my youth group leader pass, game balls... binoculars... But through all of these I had a grand time just appreciating all the different experiences I've had in life.

There were some polaroids of my crazy camp days back in middle school. I've got nothing but fond memories of my time at Camp Winona. That one time when that kid Matt pretended to be demon possessed while we were all trying to sleep in the tent. Eating half-cooked steak kabobs as our campsite flooded from the downpour of rain. Getting lost on the canoe trip and Tony constantly splashing water into the canoe with his paddle.

Nothing but fond memories. It was just me, my jean shorts, my baseball cap, and my stubble-free face. Life was good.

I also found a stash of birthday cards from my fifteenth birthday. It was cool to see who took the time to send me a card that year, and it was also really cool to realize that I'm still good friends with most of them.

I also found the manuscript of a novel I had been working on my last year of middle school. Holy crap. I laughed while reading most of it, because it was ridiculous, but I wrote enough for a good sized novel. I gave myself a pat on the back for the effort. Too bad none of it is salvageable, but it was a great learning experience nonetheless. But man, what was I thinking.

In a way, maybe this blog will someday be a nostalgia trip for me. I can look back at these entries and smile at all the stuff that happened to me this year. And when Future Josh reads this particular entry, I'll get the added bonus of reminiscing about all this really old stuff all over again.

You're the queen of the could-have-been's

The wishing winds

It all begins

And then it ends

with violins

Song: "Recovering the Satellites" by Counting Crows. Nostalgic post calls for a nostalgic soundtrack. One of the Crows' more under-appreciated songs, it's a pretty chill jam. Adam Duritz is one of those guys that I could just listen to for forever and there's always a heartfelt emotion invoked there.