What would you save?

When I was an undergraduate my Dad drove me to university at the beginning of each year and so the amount of stuff I could take was not massively constricted. Today I got out my suitcase to evaluate how much space I would have to fill with things to take to Germany. So when I was mentally appraising everything I have I began to think of things that I couldn't live without (aside from the obvious food, liquid). If I could only save 5 physical items from my life, what would they be?

1. My bear (actually a lion).
2. My maths notebooks.
3. Some letters I have kept in a box.
4. The photos of my family from when I was young.
5. My USB stick.

For me, these are the irreplaceable. The lion, photos, letters: they are all things of a time that I can't get back. A perhaps silly toy that is older than me, yet I have barely spent a night without. I remember when he had to be washed in a pillowcase (so he wouldn't fall apart) and as a result there were the occasional nights when he was wet and I couldn't have him, so my Mum and Dad put him at the side of my bed to watch me. Physical photos from childhood; a time before digital, complacent, replaceable photos. Of long summers and happy christmases. Letters and cards documenting relationships that events have broken and time has eroded. The dissertation/maths notebooks and the USB stick. These contain my "original" work. Perhaps wrong and mainly a bunch of crap I still would want to save my own maths notes and doodles above anything I've ever made in lectures.

All these things are things I am fiercely proud of and hate the thought of losing. But some I wouldn't want to take away with me. I suppose it is the difference between remembering something, but not dwelling on it.

I asked my brother the same question. He replied with:

1. Phone
2. Laptop
3. Money
4. Trainers

and he didn't need a fifth.

It is interesting to me how we both interpreted the question. For me, I immediately thought of the irreplacable. For my brother, he seems to have picked more practical, less sentimental items. However this makes me a little sad actually.

So sad that I just broke off from writing this post and collected a pile of old photographs and put them into a big photograph frame for him. I've put it in his room. I hope that (even if he never admits it) this would now be his fifth.