My girlfriend does this (or at least used to do this) all the time.
When she was young, she was gifted a bunch of hand-embroidered clothes of the very traditional ‘old country’ style. At the time, she literally thought she wasn’t good enough to wear them (she’s a bit of a tomboy) and saved them away for later. By the time she finally found them again, safely packed away decades later, her style had evolved and she didn’t even like that old-fashioned stuff anymore, and she had to just get rid of it because she knew she’d never even want to wear it.
Some time ago when she was poor and MP3 players were fairly expensive, she’d been using a really old gnarly and busted one every day. For her birthday, her brother got her a fancy new one with a lot more storage and a screen, really the latest and greatest. But she was afraid of losing it or breaking it, so she never took it anywhere and never used it. She kept using the old one. The new one sat on a shelf, safe in its original factory box for years and years. Nowadays, it’s completely obsolete and pointless because she can just play music from her phone. She never even loaded any music on it.
Sometimes (even often, maybe?) saving nice things for later just ends in the tragedy of those nice things never being enjoyed at all. She would have been better off if she wore and ultimately wore out and ruined those fancy clothes. She would have been better off if she’d used the fancy MP3 player for a while and it did get lost or broken. Sometimes, keeping precious things safe is the worst thing that can happen to those things. It’s like not having them at all – worse than not having them at all, because now you also need to dedicate storage space to them.
When ‘cheap’ RC helicopters came out in the 2008-ish time my girlfriend bought me a fairly large and somewhat expensive one for my birthday. I knew that it was going to eventually end up broken, but I didn’t want to break it right away… I put batteries in it and fired it up while I was holding on to its skids. Basically enough to feel the power of it (which was incredible), then I put it back in the box. Its been in the box, now in my basement, ever since. I really should get it out and fly it and crash it into tons of pieces the way it was meant to be.
I get the girlfriend. I understand wanting a well worn item as opposed to a new one. There is a certain amount of stress involved in ‘nice’ things .
I’m not sure that it’s normal but when you have something nice you go through more effort to keep it nice while a well used item can just be tossed in a pocket or a bag.
Preach.
My girlfriend does this (or at least used to do this) all the time.
When she was young, she was gifted a bunch of hand-embroidered clothes of the very traditional ‘old country’ style. At the time, she literally thought she wasn’t good enough to wear them (she’s a bit of a tomboy) and saved them away for later. By the time she finally found them again, safely packed away decades later, her style had evolved and she didn’t even like that old-fashioned stuff anymore, and she had to just get rid of it because she knew she’d never even want to wear it.
Some time ago when she was poor and MP3 players were fairly expensive, she’d been using a really old gnarly and busted one every day. For her birthday, her brother got her a fancy new one with a lot more storage and a screen, really the latest and greatest. But she was afraid of losing it or breaking it, so she never took it anywhere and never used it. She kept using the old one. The new one sat on a shelf, safe in its original factory box for years and years. Nowadays, it’s completely obsolete and pointless because she can just play music from her phone. She never even loaded any music on it.
Sometimes (even often, maybe?) saving nice things for later just ends in the tragedy of those nice things never being enjoyed at all. She would have been better off if she wore and ultimately wore out and ruined those fancy clothes. She would have been better off if she’d used the fancy MP3 player for a while and it did get lost or broken. Sometimes, keeping precious things safe is the worst thing that can happen to those things. It’s like not having them at all – worse than not having them at all, because now you also need to dedicate storage space to them.
When ‘cheap’ RC helicopters came out in the 2008-ish time my girlfriend bought me a fairly large and somewhat expensive one for my birthday. I knew that it was going to eventually end up broken, but I didn’t want to break it right away… I put batteries in it and fired it up while I was holding on to its skids. Basically enough to feel the power of it (which was incredible), then I put it back in the box. Its been in the box, now in my basement, ever since. I really should get it out and fly it and crash it into tons of pieces the way it was meant to be.
I get the girlfriend. I understand wanting a well worn item as opposed to a new one. There is a certain amount of stress involved in ‘nice’ things .
I’m not sure that it’s normal but when you have something nice you go through more effort to keep it nice while a well used item can just be tossed in a pocket or a bag.
True, but it can definitely be done to excess. To the point where the nice item you’re keeping nice eventually just becomes worthless anyway.
Absolutely.
I collect toys and specifically now get non-mint ones so they can be played with and possibly broken.
I have some new in package items like legos. I may build them later but I should just give them to some kids.
I started to purposely collect the boxes only since it’s effectively the same for me, they cost less and look the same as kits on my shelf.