Office Cleaning

There's crap piled everywhere in my office. Files here, papers there, a pile of CDs tossed in a corner, and books everywhere.

I decided to rummage through it today. I started making piles: junk, recycling, shredding, and to be filed. Slowly I made progress. A spot of wood appeared on the left corner of the desk, and soon even the dust seemed to be scattering.

Nearing the end, I opened up a blue folder. It was a folder that I always kept with me while traveling for baseball and in which I kept various receipts. I invaded it, finding receipts young and old, and tossed out the irrelevant material. At the back of the folder I found something: the stub from my first paycheck.

Slightly faded and with corners slightly worn, I inspected it. The name on the front, in characteristic fashion, had been misspelled. The "u" and "i" had been misplaced in what is always a common mistake. The address was my parents' address, as at that time I still used it as my permanent address.

Other than these things, it looked remarkably similar to my current pay stubs. The pay amount is less than the current checks, but just barely: $368.33. I looked at the dates displayed:

Hire date: 06/18/04

Period Start: 06/16/04

Period End: 06/30/04

Pay Date: 06/30/04

Five and a half years of my life have passed since I received this first paycheck. So many things have taken place. I entered the game a naive, idealistic young man fresh out of college. Now I'm married, older, and realism has entered my life. I'm not sure if I've changed for the better or worse, but I've definitely changed.

Okay, back to fall cleaning. Hopefully I'll find an uncashed check.