So I'm out to dinner with one of my dearest friends. We finish off the evening with a lovely tea and then it happens.

Her Mom, who has been kind enough to babysit, not just her Grandchildren but also my Wee Monster, outs her daughter.

No. She's not gay.

She's hoarding school notes from her past.

Now, in all fairness, she is a teacher and she is using those notes to teach. (Frankly, I think that that is inspired... no more stories of walking 15 miles to school in snow this high, barefoot. She's showing her students what life was like... ahem, uhm... some years ago).

Having said that, though, the majority of us do not use our school notes once we've graduated and YET I have encountered countless people who keep them all!

Please remember that these are just papers. They do not define you or your history. You define you everyday by your actions now. While proofs of achievement can be memory items, the trick is to look at the situation as you would delicious chocolate truffles: If you eat them all the time, they become mundane but if you savor them having only one during those special moments, they have more meaning and become such a treat!

Keep the odd paper that demonstrates an 'A' that was hard earned from a tough teacher or Prof. Keep the odd test whose score blew your mind BUT don't keep the whole freakin' history. You've learnt it, you know it and now you're using it: good enough.

Now go save a tree and put most of those notes in the recycling bin because there WILL be a pop quiz on this later and it represents 2/3 of your final grade, OK?