For twenty years, I saved all my college course notes and textbooks: that's a lot of paper. Worse, it's not easy to carry them around -- and trust me, they aren't light -- on at least seven moves. Yet I never once looked at them. They sat in our basement, covered in a thick layer of dust. If books and papers could wonder, they'd wonder why they were still under our stairs after all those years. When would the Big Day come? Well, the Big Day eventually did arrive; only it was different than expected. My wife, always more accepting changes than I am, finally talked me into clearing out the entire mess. The pain I experienced was also unexpected. What hurt me was to come across those terrible papers I'd written, which reminded me of my poor study habits, and an embarrassing lack of comprehension. It was great to get rid of them. But it was also a clearing of personal history. At first, I struggled with this. The truth was in the record that my books, my notes, and my papers were primary source materials, documenting an important time in my life. To clear them out was to clear out the truth. What I've learned since taking this leap is that the process is more important than the truth. I feel as if much of my real education during my college years isn't in the documents but now in me. So I am glad to free myself of this physical burden. And what's better is that I don't need to look back to those painful moments. They belong to the past. You might want to consider doing something similar, either under the stairs of your basement or in your mind. What is the personal rubbish piling in your life? Clear _ out and make your life awesome. The author struggled at the very beginning for   _  .
a sense of pain a sense of embarrassment a sense of regret for the past a sense of losing part of his history