Wednesday

A box full of secrets

When I was crawling up the ladder up to the small attic I felt a little weird when I saw all my "old" things from when I was a kid, a teenager a student... 

I was looking for one particular photo album when all those tiny little things of importance fell in my hands, such as bunches of handwritten letters, postcards, photos, you name it.

Especially my old photo albums are kind of very special to me, as I basically recorded, well, snapshot my entire childhood, especially when it comes to my pets, the pony which taught me horseback riding (got me off in every corner when I was 9, ha ha), and my other horses. 

I also found a huge stack of old drawings. I was always the reading, writing, drawing kinda gal and was hardly found in front of the TV. Early on I wanted to improve my skills of drawing horses so that was what I did: I practiced. A lot. According to the bunch I kept, I must have made millions of drawings all together. Sometimes it is embarrassing to look at them, but then I just remember that I was 9 years old by that time and smile. Wonderful memories.

Particularly amazing was the moment when I opened the bunch of handwritten letters. Most of them where dated from before 2000, so they are already pretty old. I used to have many pen friends all around the world, well not really, but certainly from a couple of different countries. A girl I wrote letters with for a really long time is living in Norway, and I was lucky enough to bump into her on Facebook - a year ago or so. We even managed to meet up one time, when I was living in the Netherlands. We happen to share the same hobby and met on a horse show in Den Bosch / NL.
It was amazing to actually see each other face to face and tell each other our stories - since we haven't written letters in years (approximately 10 years). Strangely enough we went on like nothing ever happened, like we never had any "break" or do not even know each other or anything. 
Another girl I frequently wrote with was living in South Africa. I met her at the horse stables. We wrote letter up until high school and then lost track of one another. I just tried and looked her up on Facebook, but I am sure she got married and changed her name or anything, or just refuses to use this site (for good reasons, sometimes I ask myself why I am still on there and spreading my personal data on the internet -- hello marketeers!). She lived in South Africa, later she moved to Windhuk, both far more exciting places then where I live, so I was always keen on receiving news from far far away...
My last "proper" international pen friend was from Spain. We also met here in Germany at the horse stables (another place this time) and she spend about four weeks here to train her horse. We went out a lot and got on really well. When her parents visited her they all invited me to come to Spain for a reunion. And that is what I did. It was splendid. 
The other pen friends where from all around Germany, friends I made throughout our holidays, through class excursions or other occasions. It was always fun to keep in touch with other people and receive a lot of colorful mail always full of drawings and photos.



Nice memories. 

When I looked at those letters and photos it was something like back in time. I was 11 again, excited to learn how to ride a horse, going there once a week, it was so special. Again I was a child making dozens of paintings and drawings. 
I found things from every place I have lived or spent holidays once. Small notes, photos, hints of which theatre I have been to, concerts, museums I visited... For some people that might only be a bunch of rubbish, but for me it was a small door opening to my past again. I remembered the wonderful people I met and hang out with, the clubs we went to, the adventures we had. Splendid!

Initially I went upstairs to find a particular photo album which I also found. After that I remembered my small box with lots of little things in it. Containing traces of my past journeys, memories, photos, letters -- important things-- A box full of secrets. I did not find it. 
I wonder where it is, as I always kept it where I was... Once I must have forgotten it somewhere on the move. I wonder where it is right now, and whether someone had found it... 

Love,
Svenja
xx

6 comments:

  1. Ah what a treat! I've moved so much that so many little special old things were lost in the process. Looking at old photos is one of my favorite things to do EVER so I can imagine how great it was to find all these and recount special times.

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    1. Absolutely! I def have been back in time for a moment! Sometimes I even found things where I though, ohhh this can be thrown away now, it's only rubbish. But then I think - wait. I might be looking at these things in lets say ten years time and I will probably be delighted again :-) So I kept them..

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  2. Wishing you a very happy New Year, Svenja. I know exactly how you felt as we were tidying some old boxes last summer and came across lots of old letters and photos - I became so engrossed that it took all day to finish the tidying!
    PS I shall let you know when I publish the post about the blogger award.
    http://missbbobochic.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. Ahh, yes I know what you mean. I spent the whole evening in between stacks of old papers, photos, letters etc. But it was also great fun!

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  3. Ich bin sehr eifersüchtig. Ich will auch alte Briefe finden. Vielleicht sollte ich die Kiste in denen ich meine Briefe aufbewahre mal in den Keller bringen, damit ich sie in 10 Jahren wieder finden kann :) Haha. Liebste Grüße!

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    1. Ha! Gute Idee! :)
      Oder schoen oft umziehen, nicht alle Dinge immer mitnehmen koennen und sich dann so sehr ueber das "long time no see" freuen :-)
      Liebste Gruesse!

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