It all started when he picked up a nicely shaped stone when he was at the park with his mother when he was 5 years old. He decided he wanted to keep the stone and asked his mother where should he keep it. His mother gave him a little box. It was a colourful box that was used to store a mug. Jimmy boy place his stone in that little box. That little box was like Jimmy's little treasure chest.
That little stone was the impetus to Jimmy's habit of collecting items around him that were unique or simply special to him. Although, most people simply thought he was collecting rubbish.
Within a span of one month, Jimmy had filled up the little box his mother gave him. In there you could find all sorts of stuff. From stones, marbles, cards, leaves, even patterned tissue! It was Jimmy's little vault of unique items.
As the days, months and years passed by, that little box became so full Jimmy had to find a new box if he wanted to continue collecting random items he found interesting. Collecting random items he saw in his daily life quickly became a second nature of his. The number of boxes grew with the number of items he continued to collect. So much so that he had to keep all the smaller boxes into a bigger box.
As the years went by, Jimmy eventually grew out of his eccentric habit.
When he realised he finally stopped collecting, he saw that he had turn the house store room into a "museum" for his humble collection of random items. His mom took the trouble to furnished the 10 X 15 feet room with wall racks where all the boxes were placed neatly.
He walked in one day and started taking a look at all the little things he picked up along the way of growing up. It brought some really memorable moments back to him. The Zippo lighter he found in a park, a Metallica guitar pick he picked up near his university entrance. So many items that Jimmy surprised himself! Going through his collection, he had unconsciously spent half a day in the room.
When he finally got out, he had to ask his mom why she never complained about his habit, that would have been considered as rubbish collecting to most mothers. "Hey mom, why didn't you stop me from collecting stuff?"
"Why should I my dear? All of us have unique hobbies and different ways of expressing yourself. When I noticed you had this little thing for collecting random stuff at 5, I decided why not give you some encouragement."
"Encouragement?"
"Can't really say encouragement but I wanted you to try things out on your own. At 5 years of age, any child would be inquisitive and you were down right open about it. I found it amusing and at the same time I think it was just a good way for you to explore the environment around you. It gave me a good opportunity to see you grow. You may not know but I notice the items you pick up and they have changed as you grow. All those little items in those little boxes are my memories of you. How you have grown and I think it probably encouraged you to become who you are now professionally, an archeologist. Hahaha......"
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We view things differently just like how many would view Jimmy's habit as rubbish collecting as opposed to collecting memories like the way his mom viewed it. At the same time, each of us have our own ways of satisfying our curiousity and have different hobbies that appeal to us....
Go on out there and explore the real you.... you might just surprise yourself... if a little box can do so much wonders, I am sure you can do more!
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