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It's really funny that I still call this place "my room" even though I haven't truly lived here in... 5 years? Sure, every summer in college I came back to live here for a few months, but over time all the detrius of college piled up over the existing rubble. Each summer my mother would insist that I clean up a room I wouldn't ever see the benefits of cleaning, and so I would go through the motions of cleaning. The first year I removed everything from the floors, but in later years I simply cleared out a path from the door to the bed so I could sleep. As a result, the white desk was a disaster area, as everything from my childhood had accumulated inside, so that the stuff I'd normally stick inside the desk went on top.

So I began the impossibly laborious task of cleaning out my old room at my parent's house, a task guaranteed to put me in a foul mood. I began with the bookshelf, clearing out old tomes in hopes I'd be able to clear out enough space for my more modern collections. Then I started on the left side of the desk.

While at first the surface seemed like a gargantuan pile of papers, it wasn't too hard to clean up-- mostly papers I had received about scholarships being put on hold for the trip to Japan or camera boxes. An old congratulatory letter from a congressman and my photo album from my very first trip to Asia with Chao were a few of the more interesting finds, along with a book entitled The Weider System Of Bodybuilding. Now how did that get buried in there?

After most of the desk was clear I decided it was time to dive into the depths of the drawers. As soon as I started pawing through the contents, I realized that I hadn't really put anything in there since the beginning of high school-- in fact, I would guess that most of the things inside hadn't been touched in at least ten years. Top drawer: old small flashlights with dead batteries, an electronic noisemaker, a glass baby food bottle with large red dice and a twisty nail puzzle. A ribbon and punched-hole feeder for an old dot-matrix printer. Floppy disk labels. A box with a keychain, "Class of '96." A mirror, two pairs each of sunglasses and swimming goggles, two old-fashioned squirt guns, and a bulky AM/FM headset. The plastic box that once contained my very first wristwatch. I don't remember ever having most of this stuff. I feel relieved.

I breathed out a sigh as I pulled open the second drawer, filled to the brim with a mixture of trash and treasures. Let's see... ahh, my old Boy Scout camping knife. Still sharp, though it needs a bit of oil. And the magnesium fire starting tool I kept with it-- shave off some of the solid block of magnesium with your knife, then light it with the flint on the other side. A bag of pennies? Oh, I see, they're all old wheat-back pennies, that's why I kept them. A box with a fancy gold-leaf label: "Things Remembered." Inside is a fancy keychain with my first name engraved. I have no idea who it's from or what it was supposed to commemorate. Another box with a small pocketknife engraved with a date back in 1995. Judging from the etchings, it was a gift at my sister's wedding. I must have felt an obligation to keep them both back when I got them, a feeling that still persists. I dig further. More things. Half of them I kept because they were obligatory gifts of some kind, and half I kept because I thought they were neat or unique in some way.

At the bottom I find a small sealed tupperware container the size and shape of a shot glass. My fingers are too big now to reach in and grab the contents, so I upend the container, spilling out its contents: a few flattened pennies, one that must have been squashed under the rails of a train and several by the tourist machines that imprint labels as they flatten the coin. A tiny luggage padlock with matching key. A small metal nut. Several coins from France of various denominations (obviously before the Euro became standard). And finally, two halves of an old brittle tooth. Mine.

My trash can is full. I carefully bury the relics back in their drawer and close it. No more cleaning for today.