My mother is sometimes afraid I am going to become some type of hoarder because of the way I keep my bedroom at home. Old papers and files are stock piled on my desk and tucked in corners of my room. Clean clothes that still need to be put away just sit around on my coach. Nine opened bottles of water are scattered around. This mess tends to build up over time as I rush around my work space. I will eventually clean up my room, but this usually takes me months to find enough time and energy to do so. However, my mother still jokes about how it will just become messy again, so why bother.

When I sit down to think about it, I become slightly offended, but at the same time she has a point.  I look at all the things I own and think about how much do I really need and which of these items actually identify me. Amongst all my junk, there are a few things that I can isolate as things I use everyday that do hold significance to me.

For instance, I have a set of retainers in my mouth at all times during the day and night: top and bottom. I’ve owned them for about four years; however, I’ve only kept them in for about two months now. I get slightly embarrassed because I feel like that eighteen-year old “adult” who still has to wear braces, even though it is my own wrong doing. This insecurity only tempts me to take take them again even more. When I was in middle school, I was actually good when it came to my teeth. I had braces on and a rigorous routine to clean them everyday to go along with them. However, once the doctor took them off and gave me my first set of removable retainers in high school, I was a mess. I probably lost them two or three times.

The last pair that I wear now, my mother threatened if I lost them again she wouldn’t buy new ones and I would just have to live with crooked teeth. I never lost them again, but I did continue forgetting to put them on to a point where my teeth shifted so much my doctor almost called them unfixable.

I think medical everyday items are always so intriguing. Outside in waiting rooms, families and friends grieve for their loved ones committed to the hospital bed. One bed can hold memories for hundreds of patients who lie there. There are so many patients to care for as there are billions of people looking to survive and ways to prolong life as long as possible across the world. So naturally, each facility, each doctor, and each patient has their own set of stories.

These stories can sometimes help us identify a sort of progression or change in our history and how events have unfolded to the results we see today. Somewhere in the Natural Museum of American History lays a medical bracelet that belonged to a boy named Taylor Dahley. In 1995 he was the first recipient of a bone marrow transplant because he was born with a Severe Combined Immune Deficiency. This disease would have eventually killed him if it weren’t for the procedure. [1]

Doctors and scientist have been able to continue developing this procedure since their first test on Taylor. The bracelet is a reminder of the advancement the world has seen with our technologies and what good new discoveries can sometimes bring to us. Although geneticists are still looking for a cure for the disease, we now know it is at least treatable. This one procedure has been able to help thousands who also carry SCID.[2] Many kids who have this disease have been granted a happier and more fulfilling life and are able to grow to adulthood.

One mother who became in awe of this object after she conceived her own baby, brought up a valid point. Small objects such as these could have been thrown away easily, but sometimes they hold the greatest stories. She was seven months pregnant and watching her babies heart beat on an ultrasound when she came to the realization: “Science has now given us the ability to detect problems in utero, but to actually correct them with extremely sophisticated surgeries.”[3] She feels safer knowing if there had been some issues with the health of her children, she has more opportunities now to help them.

When it comes to more widely used or common items I carry around with me everywhere, I don’t like to bring much besides my wallet. Even when it comes to jewelry, I tend to not over complicate my style with any gaudy accessories. I wear a pair of earrings so my piercings don’t close, a necklace with a symbol of my move to New York, and a ring of a mask my parents gave to me when I was in middle school. I tend to be pretty reckless, so wearing and bringing less means I have fewer hassles and things to worry about. Plus, I have very sensitive skin that doesn’t react well to any metals and plastic I wear.

Aside from jewelry, I think one of the most important things I wear are on my wrist. It is something that most girls wear around, which is a set of hair ties. I’ve snapped these time and time again, but they are one of the most useful items I carry around everyday whether or not I use them. I feel like tying up a girl’s hair means they are ready to work and get focused. When you see images of women or even men with their hair tied up and pulled out of their face, there are always some sort of determination to get things done. Hair can be a fun thing to style when it is long, but it can also become a burden when the time comes work or run around. Which is why it’s one of the essential items I feel I must always carry.

What a person carries with them can tell a lot about them. Sometimes even after a horrible accident, our items still hold a certain level of importance as they can sometimes even help identify us. When a site is being investigated, police will typically collect all kinds of evidence from the area and archive them to look at them closer for any clues and hints. Our items become a record for who we are at a certain period in time because they can tell our stories, personalities, emotions, and tendencies.

In Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner in Tucson, Arizona, forensics are trying their best to identify those who have died trying to cross the border from Mexico. By just studying these people’s belongings they can tell “stories of lives and dreams cut short, of people who combed their hair, brushed their teeth, smoked cheap cigarettes, read the Bible, and had lovers and loved ones whom they missed and who missed them.”[4] When looking at these items some of them are very similar to what I or anybody else might carry on them: spare change, ear buds, cigarettes, lighters, old pictures and letters. However, the stories and experience the people also carried are significantly different.

Although I own a lot of things around my house and dorm, some hold a greater importance than others. But it is the little things that help define and tell something about a who I am.

 

 

[1] James, Susan, “Bubble Boy Disease, Nearly Always Fatal, Could Have Cure,” ABC News, December 2013.

[2] James, Susan, “Bubble Boy Disease, Nearly Always Fatal, Could Have Cure,” ABC News, December 2013.

[3] Smith, Megan, “The Importance of Small Things,”The National Museum of American History, April 2009.

[4] Jaramillo, Juliana, “Love Letters, A Toothbrush, A Bible,” Slate, September 2015.