Last time I wrote one of these entries, i was looking at an old underground student newspaper and the cringiest of cringeworthy essays in my teenage journal that responded to it. This would have been journal notebook #2, which I had during my sophomore year of high school and into the very beginning of my …
Continue reading Personal Archaeology 14: Diagnosing My Sophomore Self
So if you go listen to the latest episode of Pop Culture Affidavit, you'll get to hear me and Michael Bailey talk about Pump Up the Volume. It's a film that I consider to be one of the seminal films of my generation, and watching it for the first time in a number of years …
Had I really been on my game last month, I would have written about my high school graduation 25 years ago on June 25 instead of a week or two later. As it happened, I didn't do much to commemorate the anniversary on the actual day, aside from making a comment on a friend's Facebook …
Continue reading Personal Archaeology 12: Things Left in the Wake
So I would be a complete liar if I said that I had forgotten that I held onto my cap, gown, medals, yearbooks, T-shirts, and other commemorative items from my senior year of high school. Oh sure, all of the stuff (with the exception of my class T-shirt and yearbooks) wound up in the same …
Continue reading Personal Archaeology 11: Standing on Ceremony
Somewhere in the September 1991 part of my teenage journal is a transcript of the time I called up my crush and asked her out. I feel like I need to let that marinate for a moment because it might take a moment for you to understand that I called this girl up, asked her …
Continue reading Personal Archaeology 10: You’re a Pathetic, Lovesick Loser Charlie Brown!
There's been this thing going around the internet this week where people post pictures of themselves at the age of twenty. It's coincided with people sharing their senior class photos, which was some sort of "solidarity with the class of 2020" thing that I didn't understand*, but I don't know the reason behind the twenty-year-old …
Perhaps it was a search for something profound. Maybe I was looking for a sense of identity. No matter the reason, I collected a serious number of quotes when I was in high school and college, and as I attempted to start the "next chapter" of my life (as dictated by the journal I got …
Continue reading Personal Archaeology 8: Can I Quote You on That?
I originally thought I would start recapping my old journals with the very first one, which I began when I was twelve and wrote in a medium-sized Mead notebook, but then I came across a random journal and the first "fancy type" of journal I ever owned. A green hard-bound journal with a sticker featuring …
Continue reading Personal Archaeology 7: The Next Chapter That Never Was?
I recently bought a new journal. It's an off-brand Moleskine-type book that I picked up at Target because the leather-bound one I had been writing in was getting completely filled. Funny enough, these are the frist two fancy-looking journals I have ever owned or written in because with the exception of a number off lears …
Among the piles of personal ephemera that I've found in my office are awards. Many, many awards from elementary school, junior high, and high school. A few are sports-related, but most are certificates for participation in service events, citizenship and service awards, and academic honors. They're all going the way of the trash heap and …
Continue reading Personal Archaeology 5: Confessions of an Achievement Junkie
The Uncollecting 