boxes3

KELLY ROVEDA

have spent my entire life living in and
out of a box. continual relocation, never
having my own space or a room to call
my own. born on the west coast, i have
never, until recently, lived in the same
location for more than a year. sometimes
finding myself in three to four different
schools or homes in one year.

as a child i remember carrying most of
my belongings and treasures in bags/boxes.
whenever i would find myself in a new
"home" the box would be turned upside
down, serving a dual purpose. one as my
dresser the other as almost a shrine. these
things that i connected with, became so
condensed so important as if they were
the only thing i truelly could call my own.

as i have been growing i have found that
this series of moves and unrest had lead
me in different ways. by not having too
much or anything at all i have in turn
wasted time trying to reclaim material
objects in the hopes of finding my past,
i have also realized that i will never be
able to hold or gather enough to reclaim.

what i feel i am missing: this conditioning
has left me questioning myself as to where
the hell i come from, of course i question
the foundation of all that i am and just
how stable it is and how much longer will
it hold up.

i have had a hard time settling down, my
mind, my thoughts, my direction since i
have seen things change so quickly and
so unexpectedly i have spent alot of time
questioning, hiding and trying to find
a sure thing. it is difficult to to appreciate
your experiences of loss and suffering as
simply something that enriched your later
life, when you find yourself feeling pain
and unrest.

ROGER PRAGER

T

his discussion came at a critical time for me, since we had been in the process of moving from Washington, DC to Sarasota since June, and were still living in a temporary apartment which we were rapidly outgrowing.

So, my first thought was: "I live out of boxes." Our temporary digs were lined with boxes, for files, books, computer odds and ends, clothes, you name it. Trying to find something, anything, was a source of major frustration!

My second thought was: "I've lived out of boxes for a long time." We were in a small condo in Washington and a lot of our belongings were in boxes in several self-storage bins (not just in Washington, either - we have stuff in storage in Connecticut from our previous move - it's been there for 13 years!). Come to think of it, the storage bins are just big boxes. Come to think of it, I'm dependent on my boxes.

When we move into our big, new house, things will get interesting. A lot of those boxes are going to end up spread all over the house and we'll be up to our necks in unpacking, trying to figure out where to put stuff - and, ultimately, deciding which boxes to PUT BACK IN STORAGE!

Even empty boxes are an issue. Which ones should we keep: to store stuff in? to pack and ship stuff in?

Going a little further afield, when I look at all the folders in my computer, I realize they are boxes, too! All my digital info is stored in a bunch of boxes!

It all comes down to a matter of CONTROL. On the one hand, all those boxes exert some sort of control over me. But, more importantly, boxes give me some sort of organizational control over the material side of my life.

SUE HARNAU

B

oxes can have many different meanings. Boxes remind me of moving away from something very familiar. I relate boxes to actual moving and to suitcases, the move away from a home country.

Boxes can hold memories and important personal things, which noone else might understand but the person the box belongs to. Boxes seem to be of no importance to some, they get thrown around and thrown away like they are garbage.

For some these boxes can have a lot of meaning. A box holds pictures, which again deal with memories. A box always reminds me of the most difficult and most important time of my life. In them I store away parts of my life. I go and open a box if I want to remember something or if I am looking for something special. For every special or important moment of my life I have something that I can stow away in a box.

Boxes can be used for storage, homes, decoration, or practical things like bookshelfs. It seems that everyone always has a box somewhere around.

Boxes:
-can provide homes
-can hold memories (ex: pictures)
-can hold someone's valuable belongings
-remind someone of a specific time in their life
-can be used for storage
-can be used as furniture
-can be used to travel
-can be used to hide in
-can bring sadness

RHIA RAE

have moved two times in my life. Once when I was two from Jamaica to Miami and then when I was about six from my aunt's house to the house I am living in currently. Both of these moves I do not remember. I do not remember anything from moving to Miami from Jamaica and have not even heard any stories from my mom about it. I do remember living in my aunt's house and seeing my new house being built, but I have no recollection of the day we moved or of my first night in the new house. I guess these moves were traumatic for me since I have blocked them from my memory. I love my aunt very much. She took care of me so I can imagine that moving away from herwould be horrible for me.

Moving now always brings tears because I am always leaving behind someone or something. I am never satisfied being in the place that I am but I am always a little weary to leave it.

ROSE BETH WILLIAMS

hen I was about five I recall sitting on two suitcases in the back seat of a Nash rambler while my mother drove us to my father's new military station in San Antonio, Texas from our previous station in Los Alamos, New Mexico. She sat me on suitcases so that I could see around me on the long drive and because there was no room in the back seat filled with boxes and suitcases.

When we arrived in San Antonio, my mother unpacked and hauled the empty boxes and discarded items to the curb for the garbage man.

Before the garbage man came, I went to the curb and carried as many boxes and discarded items (I remember an old doll) back into the house and hid them (or so I thought) behind a big chair in the den.

Of course, my mother found them and repeated her journey to the curb with the boxes and discarded items so the garbage man could take them. I cried.

PS: This weekend I read an article about saving "stuff" in a magazine and one comment the writer made was "We are all curators of the museums of our lives." I wish I had written that.

ERIN CUNNINGHAM

oxes are containers of treasures, vessels to move the valuble and invaluable. I have lived out of boxes. From the time I was 4 until I was 14, I moved with my family every 1 to 2 years, from Chicago to Brandon, FL to New Jersey, to Pennsylvania back to Florida. I learned to unpack the things I use most and store the rest. Boxes have been a personal, significant part of my life, actually. I have lost boxes in moving - losing a part of myself and my memories. When I was 8, we lived in a motel out of boxes. I had one that was my "dresser", another that was the "pantry". I learned to live a compact life with just the necessities. My parents were always searching for happiness in a place. They would say of a place "This is not where our heart is" and then be moving on.

Boxes, for me represent anticipation of a better life and hope for a new beginning.

CYNTHIA KELLY

have a rather detached viewpoint towards the meaning and usage of boxes. I treat my mind as a box. It holds the visions and experiences I received from certain objects that are meaningful to me.
The following are my characteristics of boxes: