I sold my desk today for $20 on Kijiji. That desk was one of the more permanent parts of my life. I’ve had it since mid August 2007, which is a little over 7 years….that’s a little more than a quarter of my life, and I think it may be one of the longer lasting pieces of personal furniture that I’ve had.
I don’t remember exact dates for my early life, but I know that at some point in my first few years, I had my own room. I don’t remember changing rooms, but eventually my sister and I were sharing a room with bunk beds. I was probably 4-5 years old. At some point it was decided that my sisters would share a room, and I had my own room for a year or so. When I was around 6-7 years old, we moved to a different house in Mitchell. At first me and my brother were in one room….but a year or two later we moved to the room that was originally the baby room. At some point my Dad made special bunk beds so that we could fit three of us in the same room. I don’t recall exact ages, but I definitely spent the most years of my life in that room, although things changed around as there was 2 of us at first, then 3, then two again. I was there from probably the age of 8 to 18. Ten years. I slept in 3 different beds in that room: the original steel bunkbed, the wooden bunkbed made by my dad, and the single bed that I had after we got rid of the bunkbed. Either way, things continued to change.
I left for school in 2005 and lived on campus for 8 months. I was back home for the summer of 2006 and then back in a different dorm for 8 months. The summer of 2007 I lived in the Blue Castle, which was the house next to Redeemer University in Hamilton. It’s crazy to think that back then I could move myself from one place to another with one carload.
In mid August of 2007, I moved into a townhouse nicknamed The Matchbox. This was to be my most permanent living situation since leaving home. I lived here until fall of 2011. At first I didn’t know the guys there very well…I think I had visited once before. I don’t recall having any kind of a plan regarding furniture. All I knew was that I had found a place to live. It worked out that there was extra furniture that didn’t really belong to anyone. So I inherited a desk, chair, dresser, and mattress. I guess I still have the chair and dresser, but I feel like that desk and me share a more personal history.
The desk was large, which was initially helpful as I had a laptop computer and a desktop computer with a large crt monitor. Later when I finally decided to bring my stereo from home, the desk held my stereo speakers as well as my computer.
I’ve moved twice + one with this desk. I first started using it in August of 2007 when I moved into the Matchbox, although the desk technically belonged to one of my housemates. He used a smaller desk for a while since his room wouldn’t fit the large desk. But then he got married and moved out….and took his desk with him. I used another desk for a while, but when he decided he was ready to get rid of the desk, I jumped at the chance to have it back again. I’m not really sure what I was thinking, since the desk was crazy heavy, big, and hard to move. But at the time I wanted a big desk. So we moved it back to the Matchbox. It was kind of annoying moving the desk in and out of the matchbox since my room was in the basement, and it was tight making it fit down the stairs. Thinking back, my housemates were an incredible help with moving the desk every time I needed it.
In the fall of 2011, those of us who were living in the Matchbox took an opportunity and moved into a house on the outskirts of Ancaster. My desk came with me. The annoying part was that my room in the basement was still being finished, so I lived in the living room for the first two months…along with my desk. Eventually my room was finished and I moved down there with my desk. (all this moving around of a stupidly heavy steel desk)
In the summer of 2013, I moved to London…and took my desk with me. For a month, it sat in a warehouse, while I went on a roadtrip across the country, and then it was with me in my apartment for a year. And now, I’m moving again(still in London), and the desk was just too big and heavy, so I got rid of it.
There’s a small part of me that is sad that I’m getting rid of a piece of history that has been with me so long. I’ve had so many chances to get rid of it before, but I loved that desk and always wanted it. But now things have changed and my desk doesn’t hold the importance that it once did.
I know, it’s kind of ridiculous to be writing a blog entry about a desk, but what this is really about is permanence. That desk is one of the more permanent items in my life, and I’ve only been with it for 7 years. I look at my parents, who have lived in the same house in Mitchell for 20 years, and I can’t imagine what that would be like. I don’t really like big changes…I wish that things were more permanent, but that isn’t in God’s plan at this moment.
Then I think of my sister, struggling with cancer, and I realize that I’m glad permanence is hard to find in this life. Why search for permanence in this life, when a perfect, eternal life of glory awaits us? My old desk was beaten, worn and not all that great. Why settle for this broken earth when we can look forward to the perfect life to come?
The Narrow Twisty Road 