My Life in a Shoebox

This activity was one of my favorites this semester. I'm going to be honest and say, yes, I do very much like talking about myself; the shoebox activity gave me the perfect opportunity to do just that. The biggest problem was figuring out the five things that were most important to me, the five things I'd want to take with me if I only had a shoebox in which to carry my possessions.

 I love to read, so I'd have to have at least one book with me. I chose Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows because it is one of my all-time favorite books. I could read and reread my self-annotated version for the rest of my life.

 This is what I used to call my "Teddy Bear Blankie" (yeah, I was a really creative toddler). It's been with me for as long as I can remember. If I had to uproot myself and leave most of my possessions behind, I would definitely want this to comfort me.

 I'm a writer, and I hate taking notes on the computer or my phone, so I have a ton of random pieces of paper covered in scribbles. I'd need this with me, along with at least a few clean notebooks.

 This is the FedEx Kinkos receipt from when I printed and bound the first short novel I wrote and actually finished. Though this wouldn't really be something I'd need with me, it's very important to me. You can't even see the ink anymore because it's been in my wallet for six years, but it's a reminder of a day I'll never forget.

This is a picture of me and my grandfather on my thirteen birthday. It's the last picture I have of him because he died five days later. This picture reminds me of who I used to be since after he died it seemed like everything started to change.









To go along with this activity, the Bureau of Land Management has a Pack Your Wagon lesson, and Edsitement has a cool lesson on imagining traveling the Oregon Trail.