In my third semester architecture design studio, there was a project explicitly about baggage. We started out innocently enough thinking about our own baggage, and then we moved on to studying nomadic cultures. Our focus of research had been Somalian nomads. Our task was to literally design a bag or suitcase and the contents we would each put inside of it if we were refugees. I did very poorly on this assignment.
My bag was simple and clean. I still have it somewhere and now it is full of stuff. At presentation time it was empty, though. Back in the day I suppose you could say I had no baggage. Or maybe I was trying to pretend I didn't have any baggage. I didn't have any photographs or mementos in my bag. I didn't put any tools or clothes in there. It seemed to the professor that I hadn't really understood the assignment or the nature of the nomads we had studied. And I was a combative student - always trying to challenge the assignment. (I suppose it didn't help that the professor had a hidden agenda to fail all of us in the class.)
Like I said, now my bag has tons of stuff in it. Literally, I started saving every little thing: movie ticket stubs, parking passes, birthday cards, notes left on my desk in studio, fortune cookie fortunes... It's all in a box somewhere. Figuratively, I can't forget anything that made an emotional impact. It is more of a curse than a blessing, I think. Perhaps that will change. But I can remember all the hurtful shit people have said to me, all the times I got an award or sincere compliment, creepy things strange old men say, the looks on my friends' faces when I showed up to visit as a surprise, great advice and especially bad advice... It's all in my head.
Sometimes my husband is astonished that I remember the entire conversation we had about paisley shirts in our very early email conversations almost 4 years ago. Heck, my mom chided me for remembering crap my older sister said about my denim skirt to hurt my feelings back when I was 8 years old. They say to forget such silly things, but I can't. No matter how much meditation I try it always comes back. And I'm actually fine with it because, like in my third semester architecture studio, I'm still challenging what people tell me to do.
So I made an uneasy peace with my accursed memory and continue to save fortune cookie fortunes. Someday when I'm old maybe I'll make a big collage or series of collages of these things.
I'm looking forward to learning about some other people's baggage today. For some reason it fascinates me. I think these old things help me understand individuals better, and while I might get some details wrong about people I've just met, some pieces usually stick, and I like that. Do you remember the old saying about how some friends are there for a season, some you make for a reason, and some are there for a lifetime? I tend to have lifetime friends more than season friends, and even my reason friends I like to keep in touch with. Each person is a little treasure because they took the time to tell me about their baggage. lol.
Maybe I just like listening.
This post is for today's blogoff: What are you carrying? Hopefully you have time to check out what some other awesome bloggers are carrying today. Just follow the link to the blogoff page, and from there to the rest of today's submissions!
My bag was simple and clean. I still have it somewhere and now it is full of stuff. At presentation time it was empty, though. Back in the day I suppose you could say I had no baggage. Or maybe I was trying to pretend I didn't have any baggage. I didn't have any photographs or mementos in my bag. I didn't put any tools or clothes in there. It seemed to the professor that I hadn't really understood the assignment or the nature of the nomads we had studied. And I was a combative student - always trying to challenge the assignment. (I suppose it didn't help that the professor had a hidden agenda to fail all of us in the class.)
Like I said, now my bag has tons of stuff in it. Literally, I started saving every little thing: movie ticket stubs, parking passes, birthday cards, notes left on my desk in studio, fortune cookie fortunes... It's all in a box somewhere. Figuratively, I can't forget anything that made an emotional impact. It is more of a curse than a blessing, I think. Perhaps that will change. But I can remember all the hurtful shit people have said to me, all the times I got an award or sincere compliment, creepy things strange old men say, the looks on my friends' faces when I showed up to visit as a surprise, great advice and especially bad advice... It's all in my head.
Sometimes my husband is astonished that I remember the entire conversation we had about paisley shirts in our very early email conversations almost 4 years ago. Heck, my mom chided me for remembering crap my older sister said about my denim skirt to hurt my feelings back when I was 8 years old. They say to forget such silly things, but I can't. No matter how much meditation I try it always comes back. And I'm actually fine with it because, like in my third semester architecture studio, I'm still challenging what people tell me to do.
So I made an uneasy peace with my accursed memory and continue to save fortune cookie fortunes. Someday when I'm old maybe I'll make a big collage or series of collages of these things.
I'm looking forward to learning about some other people's baggage today. For some reason it fascinates me. I think these old things help me understand individuals better, and while I might get some details wrong about people I've just met, some pieces usually stick, and I like that. Do you remember the old saying about how some friends are there for a season, some you make for a reason, and some are there for a lifetime? I tend to have lifetime friends more than season friends, and even my reason friends I like to keep in touch with. Each person is a little treasure because they took the time to tell me about their baggage. lol.
Maybe I just like listening.
This post is for today's blogoff: What are you carrying? Hopefully you have time to check out what some other awesome bloggers are carrying today. Just follow the link to the blogoff page, and from there to the rest of today's submissions!
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