This past weekend I cleaned out two storage containers full of artifacts, letters, cards, and mementos I have held onto for years.   These containers have moved with me from state to state as I worked my way to Seattle and back home again.  They sit in whatever garage or basement I have available collecting dust as I moved on with life.

Lately I have been feeling the weight of them, a weight I no longer want to carry.

On Saturday morning I opened the first box, examining each item as I pulled it out. Playbills and pictures and letters, all evoking a memory stored deep in my mind.

Old friends long forgotten.

Ex – boyfriends who once wooed me in handwritten notes.

State championships lost and won.

Then I found the email.  An email from a very young love after we decided to discard each others heart.

After giving the email another read I realize he was not strong of enough to stay with me through a down period in my life. My smile faded for a minute and he count not handle it.

The words were right there on paper for my eyes to see, process.

All these years I carried this weight of him with me, on Saturday I finally let him and all my report cards go.

Directly into the recycle bin.