Rule No. 76 – Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

I was on a plane last night on my way home and after my original idea of having a really awesome nap after two extremely tough weeks being completely thrown aside thanks to my hard of hearing peeps behind me that thought it necessary to use their fists on the tray to make a
point, and they had a LOT of points, while bashing my chair at the same time, i decided what better time to think about this rule instead. Use my time productively.

Then, somewhere between my eyes rolling back in exhaustion and semi consciousness, i looked over to the other row and there was a lady with her wallet on her lap, sorting out her slips, throwing away her bank statements. Brilliant. Seriously though, why would you want to keep them? We all do, just in case we need it for something, but when have you ever really needed them?These days they give you the option if you want to print out the receipt or not. Do yourself and the tree's a favour and just say no. Sorted.

Now love letters. Aaah, love letters. I have a box from when I was younger, covered in pictures of Madge, Wayne's World, Roxette, OMD, Tracy Chapman, Ramones, Billy from Melrose Place and more and this is where I still, to this day, keep my old letters. Letters from friends during class, letters from my cousins, from my best friend, concert ticket stubs and of course love letters. I have some love letters that go back as far as when I was 7 from my first "boyfriend" and a pen with a photo of him in the heart. I have notes from some randoms, and then I also have a notebook full of stories to me while I was away for some time.

Why do I still have these? Cause they awesome, they remind me of fun times and its always great to go back and think of the time and how you felt and have a laugh at how clueless you were. As you get older though, keeping love letters becomes harder. Unless you still with the same guy you were getting love letters from in high school, keeping them becomes a massive decision. The relationships obviously become more serious and you experienced and felt so much more with them. My most recent love letter was from someone i used to know, and at the time, this letter meant the world to me. It was filled with promises of laughter, happiness, travel, love and everything else. A couple months later there was laughing, loving and doing all the things as mentioned in the love letter, except I wasn't the person doing this.

That was a while ago though, and we've both moved on and have found laughter, love and everything else, but what I want to know now is, do i keep this love letter? The rule says you should, but will this kind of letter make you smile and have a giggle in a couple years time like the "will you go out with me, tick the yes or no block" letter?

Do I keep it and hope that one day I can take it out, blow off the dust and think back and say, ah yes, remember that time, so funny. Or do I put it in the bank statement pile?