This may sound strange, but I am glad that I don’t have a problem buying, having, using, etc used and/or found items. Unlike (at least) one of my brothers I don’t feel the compelling need for everything to be brand new and brand name. There are a few exceptions of course, but for the most I don’t have a problem having used items. In a way this is kind of surprising to me because I am the oldest child in my family which means that I generally got things first.
I attribute this to my parents and some of the experiences that I had growing up. My Mom took me yard sale-ing with her pretty regularly since I can remember and, as strange as this sounds to most people I absolutely loved going to the dump with my Dad. It never mattered what you were doing, if Dad said that he was going to the dump your dropped what you were doing, jumped in the truck and went along for the treasure hunt. You just never knew what you were going to find and, thanks to my Dad, I ended up getting some pretty cool things (like a working jukebox for my bedroom).
I’ve always treasured my memories of things like Dump Day, but over the past couple of days it has occurred to me that my willingness and comfortableness with having and using found or used items could very well be an asset for me right as I try to rebuild my life. For example, I like to have a TV in my bedroom and after my son and I moved into our own apartment I didn’t have one anymore. Initially it wasn’t a problem because I was able to watch things on my computer, but as I started developing the idea for this blog and then setting everything up, starting writing and so on I knew that I wouldn’t be able to write and have something on at the same time using my computer. I started by looking for used TV’s, nothing too big, on Craigslist, but wasn’t having much success. Then one day while leaving work I came across a 32′ Vizio TV that someone was getting rid of. It didn’t come with a power cord or remote and the case was cracked in places, but the screen appeared to be ok, so I took it. I figured that I could get a power cord to see if it worked. If it worked then I just got a 32′ flat screen TV for my bedroom and it didn’t cost me anything! If it didn’t work then trying it hadn’t cost me anything and I was no worse off then I had been before. I was ecstatic when (after struggling to find a store that sold the right kind of power cord) the TV worked perfectly!
The TV is just one example of the used and found items that I have acquired since my son and I have moved and have needed to replace items that we were forced to leave behind and I am sure that there will be many more used or found items in our future, so I am glad that it won’t really be an issue for me. So as strange as it sounds — Thanks Mom and Dad for helping me to be able to not only be ok with those kinds of items, but to be able to actually enjoy using them as well.