A Mild Case of Hoarding

If you know anything about the Strengths Finder test, you know that every person has their top five strengths. They're are part of what make you who you are.

One of my strengths is labeled as "Input." Here's a reduced description of that particular strength:

"You collect things. You might collect information or you might collect tangible objects. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts.  At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It's interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable."

This is incredibly accurate in regards to my life. I carry around a journal full of observations and loose pieces of life that happened to catch my attention and that others would deme as trash. I buy postcards wherever I go and I stuff them in a box with all the rest so I can look at them whenever I want.

The amount of books I've read up until this point is ridiculous and the space that all of the useless facts take up in my brain could probably have come in handy for something else. My dad calls me a jukebox because I know all the words to songs I can't even name that can date all the way back to the 40s.

The pictures I take are of the life that is happening right in front of me because I don't want to forget a single second. There's a box full of empty journals that I buy and keep until their time comes to be used for the sake of hoarding and pouring my life into.

Hoarding is part of my nature and while it has not yet become a problem, it is definitely a lifestyle. One could even argue that it's the best lifestyle.

Learning new things constantly keeps you going and keeps you inspired. Writing down the most mundane parts of life keeps me humble and collecting beautiful and ugly little trinkets from everywhere makes me see the face of God.

But being so curious can get you into a lot of trouble. 

"You're asking to many questions."
"You're not believing for the sake of believing."
"You should be satisfied with the status quo."

Because of my never ending pursuit of information, I can be cynical and I can be intruding. There is nothing that I don't want to know and there is nothing that I don't want to see. All of this information strengthens every belief I have and challenges the ones that just aren't holding up.

We should all be hoarders. We should all be so curious as to want to know the whole story and every side that comes with it. We should find joy in the little ticket stubs we save for the sake of remembering. We should all want to collect as much information as we can. If life is made up of all this information, why shouldn't we pursue it at all costs?