For twenty years£¬I saved all my college course notes and textbooks: that’s a lot of paper.

Worse£¬it’s not easy to carry them around—and trust me£¬they aren’t light—on at least seven moves.Yet I never once looked at them.They sat in our basement£¬covered in a thick layer of dust.If books and papers could wonder£¬they’d wonder why they were still under our stairs after all those years.When would the Big Day come?

Well£¬the Big Day eventually did arrive; only it was different than  expected.My wife£¬always more accepting changes than I am£¬finally talked me into clearing out the entire mess.

The pain I experienced was also unexpected.What hurt me was to come across those terrible papers I’d written£¬which reminded me of my poor study habits£¬and an embarrassing lack of comprehension.It was great to get rid of them.But it was also a clearing of personal history.