Have you ever thought about how many items you own? Look around your room for a second. From the lamp to the television, to your cell phone, to your pillow. Just take this moment and estimate a price on all of the tangible items in your line of sight.
Now narrow it down to the items you use the most. Probably your cell phone, computer, maybe your pack of chewing gum or sunglasses. Around how much do you think those items cost? Were they worth that price? What was your intent in buying those items?
As American consumers, we tend to fall into the pressures of buying items because they are “brand name” or because “they are the newest trend and everyone has them.” What is the difference between the Triangle bikinis and the knock offs? Should someone be defined by a brand, item or price?
I know I’ve asked a lot of questions, but picture this final scenario. We tend not to plan for the worst or take the time to think about what items we genuinely care about in our lives as we become more materialistic. So, imagine that your house caught fire in this very moment. You only have five minutes to get out of your room and down the street before it goes up in flames. That leaves you about two minutes to locate a single object your room to take with you. One single object.
I am guilty of having my first thought be my phone too. I mean if you think about it, our phones have our entire lives on them nowadays. What would we do if we lost our entire calendar, all our camera roll photos, contacts and the main source of communication? After thinking about it more I realized how insignificant my phone really was. I played out the scenario of running from my house and looking down at nothing but a phone, the one thing I thought I couldn’t live without. The photos in the camera roll were meaningless with over 50 duplicates of the same type of photo. If you really think about what has meaning in your life, I mean real meaning, then your phone comes close to last on the list.
If I rewind back to having two minutes to choose an item again, then I wouldn’t just grab my phone because that is what I am used to relying on. I decided I would grab the scrapbook my mom made me. She spent hours every year since I was a newborn baby scrapbooking my life up until my high school graduation. This scrapbook means more to me than my Facebook feed, my phone or the endless photographs on my computer. Sure, I may not have as many pictures in the scrapbook, but my mom purposefully picked them and arranged them. The scrapbook is personal and sentimental. She wrote little comments next to my picture with the specific memories and kept all of my rewards and projects. She compiled my life into a tangible object. Something irreplaceable.
What would you take if you only had two minutes to choose?
