When you open
any girl’s purse, the usual things that you might find are of course, money,
picture of their mum or dad or significant other, numerous cards to retail
outlets, and maybe a pin or two for emergencies. Well if you open mine, you’d
stumble upon a wad of dated movie tickets, clean (hopefully) candy wrappers and
neatly folded receipts. Yep, receipts. If you see a similar pattern going on
with yourself, then congratulations, you have adapted the art of hoarding.
According to the
dictionary in my handphone (dictionary.com), “to hoard” means “to accumulate
for preservation, future use, etc, in a hidden or carefully guarded place.” It
sounds like a pretty smart move, in case anything bad happens but I am actually
imposing the idea of hoarding here as something not so good... Have you seen
the reality show, “Hoarding: Buried Alive”? It’s a depiction of hoarders who
open their homes for the rest of America to watch. But this isn’t like keeping receipts in your
purse kind; they literally take the word “extreme” to a whole new level. These
people collect really many inessential stuff for years and years that they
cannot even walk properly into their rooms, leaving them so dirty that they
hatch cockroaches and rats! Disgusting yes, interesting? Very.
Hold your thoughts
and widened eyes. I do not say it is interesting just because. Don’t you feel
somewhat intrigued by these people? Naysayers may say that extreme hoarders are
unhygienic, or just plain lazy. But are they really? In case you don’t know,
hoarding is a some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder so it involves the
psychological workings in one’s mind. But is being a hoarder weird? Not quite.
You could say that I am biased towards hoarding because I am one myself but I
truly believe there is more to the habit than meets the eye.
Let us ponder
for a bit. Why on earth would a person keep something in a certain quantity
when they are not useful anymore? Maybe we can leave out the people on “Hoarding: Buried Alive” just for this bit and
let’s go back to the simple case of receipts and movie tickets. A perfectly sane person would never bother to
collect receipts and would just rather throw them away once they purchase
something. Same goes to candy wrappers and dated movie tickets. There would be
many reasons but the one I believe and bet is the most valid is because these
items have some sort of value to a person. It holds something dear, a lovely
memory of a particular person or event. They could also pose as reminders, to
do more of this and less of that because people easily forget. I am unashamedly,
this kind of hoarder.
Sentimentality,
hope and care turn me into one. Now that’s not so bad, is it? A movie ticket or
a receipt or candy wrapper can make me sit up and smile with alacrity when
stumbled upon one, or could even turn out to be a very deplorable thing. My
hidden aim when hoarding is to become a better person, however strange that may
sound, and to remember all the good stuff, no thanks to my bad memory. Without
us noticing, all the things we keep are actually scars from wounds that healed
or the feeling after crazy, fun sessions with loved ones. The pain or good feeling is gone but the
experience remains in you. Nevertheless, I am never sorry of holding on to
these items because I know they make me me.
Now hoarders who have long hidden in their closets, come out and be proud!
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