As I was cleaning yesterday, I came across an old shoe box. I had bought the shoes in college and I’ve since lost them, but the box was more important than the shoes anyhow. Prior to owning the box, the longest I’d ever dated anyone was two months -hardly long enough to acquire anything. One night, I wore the shoes to a fireside. After the fireside, my soon to be husband took me for a long drive. We spent every day after that together, and I started accumulating stuff.
Two pictures of him.
The carnation he left on my windshield.
A note that he left on a my windshield with a carnation.
An empty bottle of his cologne.
A rose he’d jokingly made out of a paper towel.
When I moved home for the summer, the box’s contents grew considerably. It started housing letters, printed-out emails, movie stubs from the various movies we saw together over the weekends, cards, more pictures, and eventually… ring catalogs.
Someone gave us a small wooden chest as a wedding gift. The contents of the shoe box have slowly migrated to the wooden box. A few weeks ago, I made the move complete and I placed the wooden box on a shelf over our bed. 
I keep it as a sort of reminder -a first-aid kit, if you will. Sometimes, I start to lose sight of why I fell in love with my husband. I don’t MEAN to do it, but it sometimes happens. I purposefully put that box in an easy-access location. Now I see it every day, twenty times a day. The contents of the box continue to grow, and I’ll be forced to scrapbook some of it soon (NOOOOOO!!!!!!).
Sitting on top is our wedding video. Under that are cards from our anniversaries, chopsticks from the date where we both tried sushi for the first time, yet MORE movie stubs, cards given on any given day just because… and the list goes on.
Yesterday as I cleaned, I came across the old shoe box and opened it to find it full of a few trash-worthy items that had nothing to do with my husband or I. So I snapped a picture for posterity’s sake, and then I threw it away.
Maybe it will find the shoes it came with in the landfill. Who knows?
All I know is that I was rather embarrassed when my boyfriend discovered I had frilly box dedicated entirely to him. If I had a “bimbo” stamp, I probably would have used it on my forehead that day. Thank goodness he married me despite the box. Thank goodness he loves the new box as much as I do.
Thank goodness for love.
When I first read the word “boyfriend” it had me thinking, “I thought she was married??” HaHa! Excellent post, you are so right!! I wish I had made something like that for the very same reason. I have letters in my wedding box out in the garage. Might have to grab them. :)