When I was younger I used to write in this cartoon character based diary, that had this sad excuse of a lock that anyone could open with a toothpick or a little force.  As I got older these lengthy insightful journal entries turned into daily calendar bullet points of events.  Soon I just stopped writing, until I picked up blogging again. 

I first started blogging on Myspace, then migrated to Facebook and of course Twitter, the most impromptu and instant of all my blogs.  Despite actually sitting down and laying a collection of words to describe thoughts, events and opinions, I've found that the most accurate reflection of my past is not in my daily writings but in my email.  I've written before that I've slowly been going through my email and have been reading things that I forgot I had received or written.  It's an on going process, out of 7.4 allowable gigs, I'm using 6.2 gigs.  I think I have the most dense email archive out of everyone I know. 

As I'm reading, I'm deleting old emails to clients, work emails, emails with expired links and ones with content I really don't care to remember.  When I sit back and think about the past decade, everything after turning 21 is a blur.  Some of the emails I went through contained intense conversations, old pictures, videos, songs and artwork.. though some are less than 5 years old, they all blow my mind as to how much really has changed in the past few years.  Each email kind of clarifies the blur of the last decade. 

Many people I know delete almost all their emails in efforts of keeping their inbox clean.  I urge you to do the opposite, with so much space try keeping as much as possible, even if it's work and look back again in a few years, you'll be utterly shocked at what you find. 

Email, my gmail is my modern day time capsule.