Losing things in plain sight

Several years ago, I was unable to find my college diploma and transcripts. They had been left in what I assumed to be a safe place, a box with other important materials. This loss initiated an intense search on my part that lasted for several more years.

I am not always the most organized person when it comes to saving and storing important items. On the other hand, I am far from inept. Somewhere, within my home turf, I have kept the important things of my life.

For the most part I can, with a minimum of effort, locate any needed object within a reasonable period of time. It may take some searching, and those searches may have to be repeated more than once, but in the end, I usually find what I need.

Most of us have character flaws that we wish we could change. One of my most irritating flaws is my total lack of patience when I have misplaced something. My state of mind over a loss approaches total irrationality. My blood pressure rises. I get flushed as I frantically search the same places over and over. I am sure that the look on my face would scare any normal person.

Besides the physical searching that I repeat time after time, I rack my brain, trying to remember just where and when I placed the now lost object. It is as if there is a fog in my memory preventing me from seeing the mental picture that would allow me to go right to the exact spot, where I originally placed the item for safekeeping.

This makes me even more frustrated, because I know that when I put my treasured article in that safe lodging, it was with the intent that it would be safe and easy to find again. How could I have so easily lost that important memory?

After several hours over several days of searching, I finally gave up my quest. I decided that one of several things had happened. First, I had mistakingly discarded or thrown away that which I sought. Secondly, someone other than myself misplaced the article. Or finally, there were gremlins hiding in my home. They were laughing at me hilariously, as I desperately tried to find what they had so cleverly hidden from me as one of their practical jokes.

Finally I surrendered to the inevitable and went to plan B. I wrote to my former college and they sent me substitute paperwork showing that I had indeed graduated, and provided a list of the completed classes and grades.

I was able to go forward, but I was still out of sorts. The loss of my original diploma still grated on my mind. It was encased within a beautiful leather-bound folder. So nice, that I couldn't imagine ever mistakenly having thrown it away. For that matter, I do not think that anyone else would view the diploma as something of no value and discard it.

For several more days, I continued to worry and fret over my lost items. I actually revisited every place I possibly would put such worthwhile objects, but to no avail. In the end, I admitted total defeat, and decided that the diploma and transcripts were lost forever.

Several years went by. During this time, I thought less and less about my lost items. Time began to heal the wounds, but every now and then, I remembered my losses. A couple of times, the memories of my failed storage ability caused me to again search the same locations that I had looked over so many times. No changes, I found nothing.

Several more years pass, and I am now moving to another home. I have been in the same place for almost nine years, so it is going to take some time to gather all my stuff for this new move.

I hire a person I know to come and help me with all the work. Over the next few days, we box up all my possessions. Furniture, clothing and boxes are all moved to the new home. There is a flurry of activity, including a lot of cleaning and throwing away of junk not needed at the new home.

It is the final day of the move. My helper and I are getting things in order in the new house. One place of particular interest for me is my office and computer center.

We have my desk, computer, file cabinets and chair all situated in their new location. The phone lines are hooked up and I can access the Internet, too. I also have a large number of books that fit into the shelves above my desk. My helper has done a great job dusting the shelves and placing the books above the desk.

Suddenly, I feel a shock that almost sends me to the floor. Straight in front of me, neatly placed right in the center of the bookshelf, mixed within the other books, is my leather-bound college diploma. I can barely breathe, as I gently reach for this lost treasure.

As I open the folder, I see the certificate still encased in plastic. I also find my original transcripts, just as I had placed them many years before. Where, how, when? All of these words rush through my thoughts. I call for my helper. "Did you put this in the bookcase?" They reply that they found the diploma in one of the boxes we had moved. These are the same boxes I had looked through countless times. There is no possible way I missed seeing the diploma.

I replace the diploma and look carefully around the room. The gremlins are back. They are shaking with joyous laughter at my plight. For close to 10 years, they hid my treasures right there, in plain sight! Do they make gremlin traps?