"Hard work pays off later, procrastination pays off now."

Went through a trunk full of old papers and school stuff that my parents had. I was surprised that they'd kept half this stuff - it included old workbooks from reading classes and those books you first learn to print letters in! Naturally, 99% of this stuff went into the nearest paper recycling bin. It felt weird going through it now - I just assumed that I'd do that later in life.

Yeah, I'm a pack rat, and I hold onto many things simply because I might have a use for them someday. But looking at these old school papers didn't bring back any memories, good or bad. Some of the teachers' names looked vaguely familiar, but that's about it - and when the names include "Smith" and "Jones," how can you be sure anyway? I couldn't bring up any faces to go with the names. I might have been looking through a stranger's stuff... except a stranger's stuff would've been marginally more interesting. In books and movies, characters usually learn something from digging through the remnants of their past, or else uncover some secret. In real life, not so much.