My fiancé, Khrista has the nostalgia-gene. Several times a week she’ll dig up old pictures and videos from years ago for long walks down memory lane. In a similar, but different vein, I’ve been known to be a hoarder of sentimental, tangible items. In the mid-1990’s I was given a red zippered pouch with the Kansas Jay Hawk logo slapped across it from my grandfather. This was my very first hoarding vessel. Special golf balls, poker chips, first communion mementos—a hodgepodge of unbelievably random items were stored in this. As I grew up and acquired even more obscure things such as a Jim Boeheim commemorative face cutout for his 900th win, NASA stickers, CD cover art, miniature jet engine replicas, etc. the zippered pouch was upgraded to a shoebox to make room for more ‘sentimental junk’. This shoebox was added to throughout high school and even made the trip to college. However, there was a noticeable change over time regarding the contents being added. Much less frequent were the additions of ‘things,’ instead I had almost exclusively added ticket stubs from particularly memorable events. Fast forward a few years—for my 23rd birthday gift, Khrista created a wooden shadow box to replace the shoebox and store ticket stubs in a more presentable manner—one of my favorite gifts I have ever received.
If you have read this far, surely you are thinking “Gosh, Tom I understand writer’s block, but sheesh this is brutal, what’s your point?”
Point is, whether you’ve noticed it or not, these types of items are going digital.
And if you’re like me and value these mementos, you need a strategy to stay organized so that your great, great grandchild can see exactly where you sat for Jaylen Brown’s series-ending shot in Game 6th of the 2022 Eastern Conference finals.
Whether you are aware of it or not, I would guess that 75% of all readers with an iPhone have at least something saved in their ‘Wallet’ app. Be it a plane ticket, Broadway show stub, Bruins loge pass– something’s there. I strongly encourage you to take a look. ‘Big whoop, I can see where I sat on a flight eight years ago,’ some will say. And they might be right! But for me, a date, time, seat, gate entrance jogs my mind of more important memories and personal facts. Things like who I attended the event with, what was going on in that time of my life—ideas that evoke some pretty serious reflection and thought. As I scroll through my Wallet now, I found a concert ticket from the night after I received news of my passing score for the final CFP® exam—we had quite the eventful evening. I scroll up a bit more in the app to a Celtics ticket from a night up in the nosebleeds; smiles and sadness as I realize this was the last game I attended with a buddy of mine that unfortunately is no longer here with us. Like all memories, good or bad, I’m appreciative that they exist and that I have the ability to recall them with the help of a ticket stub.
