The time I visited my mom in Minneapolis, and resurfaced childhood memories.

Dear reader—thank you for your patience in waiting for this blog’s next post! Though I took a long hiatus from writing over the last few months, I assure you the lapse was not because of anything bad that happened to me, or because I was wonting of anything good to say. I have just had too little time to post any updates, especially while I was undertaking my once-in-a-lifetime trip in southern Europe. But now I’m back and ready to let you in on it all!

Let’s start my visit in Minneapolis, where I hung out with my mom and friends at various Twin Cities landmarks (see pics). Yet, the main event was clearing out my room at my mom’s house—which, until this trip, stood as a well-preserved shrine to my childhood.

Cleaning my room. Space management guru Marie Kondo has been known to say that no matter how wonderful things used to be, we cannot live in the past. The joy and excitement we feel here and now are more important. I decided it was now time to move forward from the past, and so I cleaned out my childhood room during my first day back in Minneapolis.

To be sure, there was plenty of junk. But what happily surprised me was how much of a thrill I got, sifting through all my stuff, and resurfacing forgotten childhood moments. Here are a few highlights.

Model rocket. Oh, I loved to tinker and build things as a kid! I’m proudest of the several rockets I made. I lost most of the rockets I made, after sending them over the rooftops of unsuspecting Minneapolis residents. Pictured was my last remaining set.

South High theater. I never got too involved with theater, but I enjoyed the powerhouse performances at my high school. Did you know that Josh Hartnett and Rachel Leigh Cook went to my school? Anyway, I got a kick out of finding these beautifully designed programs hidden away on a shelf. If I could go back in time, I would have talked one of my theater friends into letting me illustrate a program—or entering me into an approved apprenticeship course.

Bereavement support group. After my father passed away, my mom, brother, and I each joined a support group with peers who had recently lost family. I was quite fond of my group, the pre-teens. One day, all of us in the group wrote down affirmations for other members to keep on-hand for a rainy day. Fast forwarding to 2022, it was such a treat to find these notes stashed away from my grief-partners. Sarah and Eric—I want you to know you are being thought of and loved after all these years.

The new art. The hardest things to the throw away were my childhood arts and crafts. I kept most pieces that were hung on the wall, since I was just too emotionally attached (and there was plenty lower hanging fruit elsewhere). But I did toss a few shelf items. The silver lining of discarding old art is that it makes space for new, more mature work. Check out one of my latest profile portraits below. Not bad, right?!

Thank you. Marie Kondo tells us to say thank you before throwing out our stuff. Here’s all the items I discarded from my room on this spring day. These had at one time given me sparks of joy. Thank you, thank you! Oh, I felt so accomplished!

Up next. The next few posts will recap my adventures across southern Europe, from Budapest to Venice to Barcelona to Seville to Paris—just to name a few. You won’t want to miss a thing!