I'm surrounded by paper right now. Literally.
I've been digging through files, trying to sort out what's worth keeping and what I need to toss. This is formally the beginning of my packing up and getting ready for my next move. With the house inspection on Wednesday, I'm feeling the pressure to get organized. It's been a challenge considering work and school these past couple weeks.
I should do this more often. I can't believe how much has happened these last few years. I found my 2004 W-2s. I made $5,500 that year. That's hilarious.
I found letters of recommendation from my high school teachers, my Letterman certificates for soccer, the title and sale certificate for The Green Hornet, car insurance cards that apparently never made it into The Green Hornet.
I found brochures from the National Italian American Conference I attended in New York, pages upon pages of student loan updates, voter registration cards for Pierce, King AND Whatcom counties.
I found copies of WWU newspapers and magazines that I wrote articles for, my letter of acceptance into the WWU journalism program, my GRE scores, my SAT scores and my letter of acceptance into the UW. Some documents aren't so old.
I found my undergraduate, senior thesis research paper, all 28 pages of it with 131 citations. It seemed monstrous at the time and took all quarter to complete. I have a 30-page paper to complete in two weeks and wrote half of it over the weekend. Perspective is everything.
The thesis was called "Reporting Guantanamo: How The New York Times Informed the Public About the Injustices at America's Terrorist Jail, Sept. 11, 2001 - March 1, 2005." Bold title, huh? I scored a perfect 200, and my professor Lyle Harris commented, "Well argued and thoughtfully supported. You show insight into a major issue of a democracy."
It's amazing that just 3.5 years later Guantanamo is closing and my thesis is looking antiquated. I suppose it is.