Down memory lane wall

Hey. I have always been kind of sentimental and had a hard time throwing out stuff. Over the years I managed to stock a bunch of useless stuff with great emotional value to me even though my young age. I put all of my material memories up on my wall. Into my memory collage. Here I’m about to give you a sneak peek of memories I’m most fond of. Welcome to my walk down the memory lane wall.

There is this letter my dear friend Elizabeth wrote to me when I was around 5 years old. I used to live in the USA from age 2-5 in Highland Park NJ with my father’s colleague from work and his family. They had 2 daughters Elizabeth a few years older than me and Claudia a few years younger. When my youngest sister was born we moved back to Slovakia for good and as there was no Facebook back then all I and my American friends had been these cute letters.

Underneath the letter is the taxi number of a cab me and my friends drove on our goodbye dormitory night.

I used to live at an all-girls dormitory for 4 years and there were plenty of strict rules, we couldn’t go out late, we had to keep our room clean, turn off the lights at 10 pm, and many others that made breaking rules even more fun. In our last year all of the other girls prepared this cute cultural program, they danced, recited, sang, and made us dinner as a goodbye to our time at a dorm. At this evening we had free pass or night out – meaning we could stay out late all night ( but we still had to go to school the next day)  so me and my girlfriends went to a disco and drove this cab in the morning so I saved the card for the memories.

I saved my flying tickets from 2 years ago when I returned back to America for summer.

Me and my cousins drove to Vienna, flew to London a from there to Newark airport. All of the tickets are up on my wall and if you want to read about my America travel experiences feel free to check out some of the articles I wrote.

I saved the baby bottle made out of paper with my name on it. I got it on my first day in my high school dorm from older students as a welcome gift. We had this big party where we had to play a bunch of embarrassing games as newbies to sort of seeing what is students life really like.

I saved the pharmacist bottle with my name on it that I got from younger students as a goodbye gift on my last day at school – a graduated pharmacist assistant.

On my first birthday after I moved to the Czech Republic my parents send me flowers and champagne to my new university dorm as a birthday surprise. I kept the card they send me. This memory comes with a funny story.

I remember this old delivery guy knocking on my door with a huge bouquet of roses and champagne in the other hand looking for miss Natalia.

I got so freaked out cuz the night before me and my friends spend the night out as most of the first-year university students do. Drinking. A lot. I had some blank spaces in my memory from the previous night. I got so scared I hooked up with this old men and now he’s bringing me flowers.

Thank god he was just a delivery guy.

I kept my red cross membership card I had for 4 years.

I kept my rehabilitation access card I used to write all my rehab terms on as a memory of really terrible times I went through.

I kept the coach passcard me and my first university roommate got. We pretended to be cheerleader coaches for Czech cheerleaders championships. Her mum was actually a coach and gave us the tickets for free.

I kept all of the maps and pocket guides from my USA trip.

I also kept the Dresden map we were all receiving on a bus for our Christmas trip to Dresden. I actually went on the same trip 2 times. But I only kept one map.

When I was in Washington D.C.me and my cousins went to the Holocaust museum.

All of the tourists were receiving this identification card of one Jewish person who died in the Holocaust and their story. As we travel through the museum’s floor we would find out how and why the person in our card died.

Mine was a girl named Julie. She was a polish and she got caught and killed after she gave food to Jewish children she met on the street.

I kept so many tickets from almost every country I ever visited.

I kept ticked from tour Montparnasse in Paris from New years even in Paris and also the ticket to Eifel tower.

I kept a ticket from Venice Campanile di San Marco from when I and my girlfriends made a weekend trip to Italy.

I kept a subway ticket from Vienna when me and my friend went to Christmas markets there.

I kept a subway ticket even from Prague when I was first visiting with my friends. We went to a Paramore concert. Almost 6 years ago! Who knew I would be moving to live in Prague soon.

I kept the ticket from wax museum Grevin in Prague and also from wax museum Madame Tussaud in London.

I kept the ticket from my first live hockey game I watched.

I kept a ticket from Wildwoods water park from 2 years ago.

I kept the cinema tickets for the memories.

I even kept waiting number I got at the police station from when I was picking up my driver’s license.

I kept a guitar pick I caught at a rock concert in my hometown from a band called Guano Apes.

I kept a ribbon from my prom night. Also, I kept a small piece of broken glass from the same night. But that just can’t go on a wall.
There is so much more stuff I just keep in my drawer. When I feel like it, I just go through it all and relive it all.

I always assumed I would forget those memories by now. But when I hold each item I can clearly see the day got them and how I got to own them.

I’m just 22 years old and I already store a bunch of “craps from my past“. But each memory is special. I guess I will need a much bigger drawer or bigger wall in years to come.

I just love keeping the memories alive.

Thank you so much for your attention
xo Natalia