Part of getting ready for college involves cleaning out the papers and books that've piled up since (or before) high school. In my case, much of this "clutter" was more of a physical manifestation of the experiences I'd love to remember. This ranged from ballots from speech and debate tournaments, personal notes, books I hadn't cracked open in years, sheet music from orchestra or previous violin lessons, and even work from my favorite high school classes.

As move-in day approaches faster and faster, I decided to share this poem about some of my findings, which induced quite a bit of nostalgia.

In the shelves, on the desk, in the closet

There lie mementos, reminders, and souvenirs

A collection of stories from past years

The drawers of the desk overstuffed with the ubiquitous blue quarter-sheets

Received after every weekend of seven-minute speeches in suits

Prepared with the Economist and Atlantic magazines that line the tabletop

Along with timers– for debates on Syrian intervention and back doors

Accordion folders stowed away in the closet

That once held evidence on each bill, each affirmative case,

Now hold pockets of air.

The books with the forbidden three-letter words: SAT and ACT

Are to be evicted from the room and sold for profit.

But the others are to be organized– Harry Potter and Percy Jackson

Provocateurs of playground discussions

Highlighted copies of Shelley and Shakespeare

Field guides that have borne wear and tear from journeys to Yosemite and local parks

Accompanied by my father and a pair of binoculars.

Take their place next to The Trouble with Physics and The Code Book.

Atlases and maps investigating the world’s nooks and crannies,

The Bhagavad Gita and Siddhartha its metaphorical questions

Yearbooks that are now the subject of embarrassing Snapchats

All find a spot on the bookshelf.

The closet littered with pieces of boardgames

Is embellished with alliances and treachery from Risk at bonding parties,

A perpetual series of chess games on undeniably long hiatus

Imagining the way World War II would pan out with plastic troops, planes, and tanks

Discussions with parents about using Hindi words in Scrabble

The loose papers and notebooks date from freshman year and before

Heartfelt handwritten notes and cards find their way into “the special box”

Along with name tags, buttons, flowers– folded paper and dried boutonnières

Endless debate rounds and speeches have their own share of souvenirs

Hastily written notes forming orderly columns on printer paper

Prime Minister’s constructives on Obamacare,

“2NRs” warning against the encrypted expansion of Daesh

Speech intros on econo-physics addressing the Senate.

And of course, Netanyahu on Israel topics.

Essays and problem sets cobbled together on late nights

Making sense of Westward expansion and civil rights

Hours later– differentiating, integrating through sheet after sheet to Schubert

Occasionally the tear-stained “Fun Quiz”

Badly drawn cartoons of “Vive la Liberté!”

Instructions on graphically illustrating industrialization

Bring back the class where we reenacted Tannenberg with cardboard rifles

Interviewed a demonstrator from Tiananmen Square.

In fact– there lies an interview transcript

Thanks to a chance encounter by one of the “Greatest Generation,”

His own life preserved due to a chance occurrence.

The box which houses the account of our encounter opens a window

To my 8th grade self

Analyzes Inception’s literary devices

Contains a middle-school paper announcing news in grayscale

Which said I’d love to go to Cal or (not) Stanfurd

Far-fetched goals such as “win the Builder’s Olympics,” “get a 4.0,” handwritten neatly,

Interspersed with some that have been achieved– evidenced by sheet music

Bach’s Allemanda overlooking the Pacific,

His third Brandenburg Concerto performed en masse in Palo Alto

Quartets by Beethoven in the redwoods and Mendelssohn in the concert hall

Kreisler and Kiev klezmer on the streets,

Somehow combining Vivaldi’s “Summer” with Bollywood at home.

The writing changes from notes to words,

Witnessing the changes– from essays on Of Mice and Men to drones in Pakistan

Honed through the crucible of rhetorical analysis

Partner paragraphs, in-class essays,

In relentless pursuit of the perfect “9”

Short stories, one-man-plays mature into journals and verse

But as I read freshman year vignettes, I wonder what has changed?

Deep into the records of my adolescence I have delved.

On the desk, in the closet, on the shelves.