College Scrapping

I was inspired to write this post after listening to the latest Paperclipping Roundtable podcast. They talked about college scrapbooking. And I thought, hey! I did that!

I've been scrapping since 1995. Yup, 19 years. What makes it even more impressive is that in 1995 I was only 13 years old. So by the time I went to college in 2000, I was already in the habit of taking photos and saving ephemera. 

Keep in mind, even in 2000, digital just wasn't around. No one had camera phones (or really even cell phones at all!), and very few of my friends even owned a camera. I had a point and shoot film camera that my mom and dad had gotten me for some birthday a while back, but it was exactly that - a point and shoot. No settings, no flash, no zoom, no batteries even!  Just point, click (don't forget to advance the roll!), and hope for the best when you got the film developed 2-6 months later. And every time I got my photos back, it was the best day ever! I would drag out my supplies from the one little box I kept stuffed under my bed and make pages on the floor of my dorm room (the desk was nowhere big enough for a 12x12 book) till my roommates needed to actually use the floor.

 I had no extra money to spend on supplies, so I would use whatever I could get my hands on. Printer paper, construction paper, confetti, stickers, die-cut holiday wall decor, anything! I even included a balloon someone decorated for me on my birthday!

At some point in High School, I received a large collection of Mrs. Grossman stickers (remember those?) Since I had to use what I had, I began to incorporate those stickers into my college scrapbooks. I had many, many sheets of penguins, so they became my unofficial college mascot, showing up on almost every page. I would put hats on them, put them in boats, give them fun little props, anything to make the page more fun! 

At the end of my sophomore year, my roomies and I got an off-campus apartment and in a fit of "oh my goodness, last time in a dorm room!" nostalgia, I photographed everything around the room that held any sort of meaning and made a 'year in review' page.

And I made another for my junior year.

And for my senior year, I made mini books for my roommates. An A-Z walk down the 4 year long memory lane we had traveled together. I translated those books into singles pages for each of them for me. 

By this time, I was using my computer (and the scanner in the campus library) quite heavily in my scrapbooking.

My senior year, I also started making calendars every month of what happened, ever (especially!) if I didn't have any photos to go with it. I've always been obsessed with calendars, planners, graphic organizers, so this was a perfect way for me to include a bit of every day into my books.

It was like an early Project Life! 

As senior year (and my extra student teaching semester) wore on, my style developed into more of a traditional scrapbook, then into more artsy. I found scrapbooking communities online, I found a local scrapbooking store, and I helped found a Meetup group of scrapper in my college town (I was the youngest in the group by at least 15 years). Gone were the days of Mrs. Grossman stickers and construction paper (and mangling my poor photos with severe cropping!). 

I love looking through my old college books, they are a complete look back into my life at that time. I'm so happy I was able to keep up with my scrapbooks as I went through school rather than trying to go back and create or finish them. I do wish I had journaled more, but the year in review pages and the ephemera I included tell enough of the story.

So now it's your turn. Do you have a record of your college years? Did you keep a journal? A memory box? A scrapbook? Did you do it while you were there or after the fact? Will it ever see the light of day or is it squirreled away in a secret place where no one can ever see proof of your college insanity? :-)