There it was their whole story down to one box. A box full of pictures, CDs, memories, and gifts.

When she was done gathering all the things that belonged to yesterday she thought long and hard about what she was to do with it.

When a relationship ends it’s a ritual to remove all things that remind you of him/her. Many people frantically gather their things and or even burn them. They bring down the pictures, remove all the gifts, fold away all the memories, like if by removing all the physical objects they could do away with yesterday.

But does it really make a difference if you have that box hidden under your bed, collecting dust, or it being far away at a landfill, becoming dust? Can you really throw away yesterday by simply removing all the things that remind you of it? Or do we kid ourselves by thinking its easier to forget this way – after all… isn’t healing a process?

She didn't want to forget, put it past her, like it never happened. She'd rather not pretend that song on the CD he burned for her didn’t make her cry once. That his cards always made her smile. Or that the t-shirts that he brought her from his trips, are still brand new because he forgot she didn’t wear t-shirts.

She decided to keep it all as a way of accepting everything that reminded her of all the pain, all the memories, and all the lessons that yesterday brought. It’s not that she can’t part with these things. I’m sure with time all those objects will collect dust and in due time they will be only a memory.

But as of now, she needs them. To remember the story, to accept her mistakes, to grow… so she can have a future. It’s true we lose our battles but it’s also so true we win wisdom for the days ahead.

Thinking back now, there are so many moments of her life she wishes she could go back to, hitting the stop button at just one moment and erasing everything that came after it. But each place she could think to push stop would mean missing something that came after it. Like the lessons she's learned and the strength she recovered.

She needed it all in the end, to let her own story find its finale…