Most of us have a box somewhere.
A hospital bracelet. A favourite tiny outfit. A few cards, drawings or photographs. Things that, at some point, were just part of everyday life.
And then somehow, they stayed.
Out of all the things we once had, why are these the things we keep? What makes something worth keeping?
Because when you think about childhood, so much of it disappears without us really noticing.
The clothes become too small. The toys are passed on. Bedrooms change. Favourite cups get broken. Books lose their covers. The things that once filled every corner of a child’s life slowly stop being there.
Not because anyone decided they weren’t important.
Life just moved on.
And eventually, what remains can fit inside something surprisingly small.
One day, a whole childhood will fit inside a small box.
Some things are obvious keepsakes.
A dress my mum kept from when I was one — that Kira wore at one too. A baby bracelet. Photographs. The things we know, even at the time, might matter later.
But the things that get me thinking are the less obvious ones.
The random toy. The scrap of cloth. The note. The little thing that means nothing unless you know the person behind it.
The things no one would ever choose because they were beautiful or valuable.
They were simply there.
Used every day. Carried everywhere. Left beside the bed. Dragged around the house. Part of a particular child at a particular point in their life.
And perhaps that is why they become difficult to throw away.
Because after enough time has passed, the object stops being only an object.
It becomes a way back.
Back to a room that looked different then. A voice you can almost hear. A very small hand carrying something everywhere it went.
Some things become more valuable only after they’ve stopped being useful.
And sometimes what we’re really keeping isn’t the thing at all.
It’s the person attached to it.
Maybe that is why it’s so difficult to know, while we’re living through childhood, what will matter later.
The important things don’t always look important at the time.
Sometimes they just look like an old toy lying on the floor.