Today was a cleansing day for me personally. Last summer, when I left Florida Southern, I packed up my entire office in one wagon load and stuffed it in my Jeep. Ten years and that was it. I also had one large duffel bag of FSC tennis t-shirts that I was sure I needed at the house. I brought the running shoes, athletic shorts, tennis shoes, and my extra string home. Each of those items has found use over the past nine months. There were also, ten years’ worth of polos, khaki shorts, and long sleeve t-shirts. Each of those has been used repeatedly so there is usefulness to keeping them around. However, the t-shirts have just been hanging out. Some still in the bag and others were stuffed in a drawer out of the way. On a side note, it is amazing how many shirts I had amassed over the past ten years while there. I was sure I would wear them for exercising, out and about, and just as a memento for the time and years I spent, reppin’ the brand.
The road always seems so clear when the initial plan is created. We forget to plan for rubbernecking accidents, bathroom breaks, construction, and other delays along the way. My shirts are about the same. Starting a new career and leaving on such good terms, my thoughts are so positively strong about FSC that I felt keeping the shirts around would allow me to stay connected with happy reminders. The realization that this line of thinking was a bit of a farce, kind of like going to Orlando with no delays. During a moment of Feng Shui, it hit me that the shirts aren’t ever going to get used. Even when I was at FSC, the t-shirts got used for practice time, weight room time, conditioning practices, and casual official capacity moments. Heck, I only brought them home to wash them and then they immediately went back to my office and put back into the rotation.
Were they bothering anything stuck away at the house? Nope, but they weighed on my mind. I know, there are many other important things to ponder on the daily but what can I say. These shirts need to be used and used by people that have an attachment to being a MOC. Before we have a discussion on getting rid of used shirts, let me tell you about these shirts. If I had 70 shirts I had close to 100 t-shirts. A lot of them looked almost brand new. The first-year shirts and many of the second-year shirts have had their useful life extinguished but the remaining eight years were pretty stellar. Why throw away perfectly good threads when some college dude can buy it at the annual rummage sale to wear during his workouts, intramural sports, or Saturday night frat party? This seemed like such an easy solution. There was only one caveat. Was I sure I wouldn’t regret getting rid of my history? Blood, sweat, tears, stories, and memories wrapped up in cotton, dry fit, and multiple Florida Southern logos. The answer, now that I am satisfied with what I did was, yes!
Today was another cathartic day in the progression of moving away from being known as a coach and becoming a REALTOR®. When I arrived on campus for the delivery of past, the present was completely on display. For ten years all my colleagues saw me in shorts, polos, running shoes, and occasionally in jeans. Today, it was a working professional. There were many comments, compliments, and the realization that the switch was complete. Dropping of the shirts to their next owner was much less dramatic emotionally than I thought it might be. Really, it was quite a relief to get them gone and to know that I didn’t have to worry about them taking up space anymore. Getting home tonight I walked into the area where they were stored and looked at the empty spot with a bit of a grin. Also, there was a thought about what was next to go. My personal office at the house is like a museum to what I once was. It is time to show off what I want to be and who I currently am instead of hanging on to so many years ago. It’s too bad we only have one trash day. This Spring cleaning thing feels good.
Hey, grab a garbage bag, drop the emotional attachment, take some digital pictures, and clean your closet and empty your drawers. Oops, that last one sounds a little weird. Happy simplifying.
Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash
Photo by Andrej LiĊĦakov on Unsplash
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