childhood

Today I unexpectedly received the following award from Moment Matters:

Awarding the people who live in the moment,
The noble who write and capture the best in life,
The bold who reminded us what really mattered –
Savoring the experience of quality time.

I’m just going to take this moment to be un-sarcastically mushy

This is a pretty humbling mention.

I feel like most of us like the idea of living in the moment and try to attain this fabulous state of being but do find it hard (at least I do). Living in the moment is something I try to do with this blog and finding the Awesome in daily life makes me get up in the morning wondering what small, exciting or extraordinary event might happen today.

I’ve pasted the rules below as instructed

RULES:

Winners re-post this completely with their acceptance speech. This could be written or video recorded.

Winners have the privilege of awarding the next award! The re-post should include a NEW set of people/blogs worthy of the award; and winners notify them the great news.

I will address said rules with the following bullet points:

There will be no video (let’s not get carried away here)
Acceptance speech: Thank you to my mom, who told me I could do anything. To my dad, who still finds joy in the little things (like the Bachelor franchise). To my lil bro, who tells me I’m his best friend everyday (until I don’t do what he wants) and to my grandma, who always felt fulfilled no matter how much or how little she had.
The winner that I’ve chosen ironically made me think about some particular moments in time today: http://tworedtornados.wordpress.com/. This morning I woke up, logged onto WordPress and came upon this Awesome post called “No More Lies,” in which the writer states:

“We owe it to the young versions of ourselves to fulfill their dreams — those dreams we used to cherish.”

This thought has crossed my mind once or twice before. When I look at photos of myself when I was really young and I think… this kid has no idea what’s coming, but she’s… pretty thrilled.

Once upon a time I was this girl. Having my first princess photo shoot (every girl needs one).

I’m going to keep trying to make her proud.

T-12 days until the big move (to Chicago).

I was finally forced to get to the dreaded packing portion of the life-changing exercise.

Where to begin!

After surveying the contents of my room, I found clothes I haven’t worn since 1998 (homage to my high school fashion glory), cell phone chargers for every model made since 1999 (hmm might need to revive that Saved By The Bell phone…) and jewelry I picked up during college travels that once was “silver” but is now a gorgeous pewter at best.

After giving it some thought, I decided not to give friends and family reason to nominate me for Hoarders and thus spent time going through everything. I opened up pre-packed boxes, took everything out from under the bed and dug deep into bins that traveled (as is) from high school to college to NYC.

Favorite finds:

The ever popular “spank me it’s my birthday” t-shirt (size kids small) – KEEPER
Hair ribbon I wore in my last figure skating college nationals
Complete sequined one-piece suite (worn on Halloween 5 years ago)
15 tube-tops (naturally)
Cards my roommates and I wrote to each other in college. Absurdity at its best.

Ultimate favorite: card my college (and current) roommate gave me on my 23^rd bday:

I can’t remember how the nicknames “poopy” and “crappy” came about, but I do know that 8 years later, I still yell “crappy!!” in public places when trying to find her. Neither one of us can remember what the “little something” is that was provided for the start of my day. I’m assuming a Keystone Light. Or beer pong paddle (?). Either way: solid gold.

I donated bags of clothing, shoes and blankets. I gave away skirts, tennis shoes and workout outfits. I spent hours reading every note, postcard and diary.

The result is: a great deal less to move. Some proper reminiscing. A feeling of lightness.

Turns out cleansing and “spring cleaning” (in October) is Awesome.

Highly recommend it.