Lizzy King, Human - A Study. Box 1 Part 3

Box 1 - 1999, 2000, 2001 - Part 3

When I was 11 years old I started a box. A box to put my letters in, a box for ticket stubs and photos, diaries and broken things worth keeping. It was 1999. This is an exploration of the first of many boxes I have kept every year since, a study of my life. The first part can be found here and the second, here.

Letter – from Anthea – 15^th January 2000

In this pretty heart breaking letter my friend Anthea tells me about how fucked up her life is. That’s verbatim. Things are pretty shit with her family at this stage, and according to the letter her brother continues to cause pain for her. In the letter she hopes that our friendship never becomes as fucked up as her life. Which is interesting, because while we have both changed a lot and don’t know each other that well anymore, we are still friends. I went to her wedding a few years ago and we interact on facebook and such. I suspect that her life is not fucked up at all anymore, and our friendship is benign (and certainly not fucked up). At some point, past Lizzy wrote on the letter, cynically stating that Anthea has never before said that she loved me, or didn’t want our friendship to be shit. We were twelve.

Photo – Mark Eating Cake – 2000

On the back it says “I had a real bad haircut”

This is a great photo and I’d share it if it weren’t of someone else I don’t know anymore. He is shoving that cake in like it’s going out of style. The haircut seems fine to me.

Item – Homework Diary – 2000

A diary I used in grade 7. Mostly filled with homework reminders, but occasional comments from friends include “she’s not a cow! Cow’s are pretty and she isn’t! She’s a bitch!” and “The winner is Sydney!”

Yeah, I have no idea, either.

Item – A poem from Tahnee – 2000

A poem by my friend Tahnee dedicated to me.

This box is full of love, and I spent grade 7 thinking everyone hated me.

Letter – From Mark – 2001

Holidays sucked, his school uniform is gay, but Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was pretty sweet.

Letter – from Megan – 2001

My friend Megan writes to say that a girl we were friends with doesn’t want to be her friend anymore. This is likely the start of a really awful time in my life. A time where I became a bully, specifically against this girl who doesn’t like Megan anymore. I am not proud of this time and there is no evidence of it in the box, suggesting I wasn’t particularly proud of it then, either.

Item – Set of Lord of the Rings Collector’s Cards – 2001

Hot Damn I was obsessed with the LOTR movie. I almost have a complete set here.

Item – Ripped Out Diary entry – 2000

Apparently I liked three boys at once. The entry explains my dilemma but ultimately lands upon Mark as the one I like the most.

Item – Ripped Out Diary entry – 2000

A journal entry detailing the time Mark asked me out and the subsequent school disco where we danced. I didn’t like him much till we danced, but after that it was like being “in a whole new world”. 

It was exactly like this.

Item – Drawing by Megan – 2001

We must have been studying Picasso in Art, because nothing else could explain the creepy eye amongst the coloured shapes here.

Note – to Self – 2000 (?)

“Life’s a BITCH (and I am too!)

Note – to Self – 2000 (?)

“This sux really badly”

“I heart Mark”

Hopefully these two ideas are not linked.

Note – From Christie - 2000

Someone is being a “sinjin fag” and not giving her a yes or no on something. I have no idea what “sinjin” is and I suspect at the time I had no idea what a “fag” was either.

Note – To Christie (spelt Krizti for no discernable reason) – 2000

A response to the above note, but mostly a heavily expletive laden missive about the weather.

Letter – from Mark – 2000

A letter given to me probably towards the very end of primary school with his address, asking for mine and a promise to ask me to the movies on the holidays. He implores me to write regularly.

Item – Grade 8 Student ID – 2001

I look about 7 years old. And very keen for school.

Letter – from Anthea – 2000

Anthea is staying with her extended family. Her brother annoys her and she hasn’t felt more like killing her sister in “about 20 years”. It’s a really sweet letter apart from that. Anthea and I were very good friends.

Item – Mark’s phone number on a scrap of paper – 2000

On the back it says, “written by Wayne” – wingman hero.

Item – Red Paper that says “I heart Harley” – 1999

I really did heart that guy. I pretended to be into pokemon for him and everything.

Item – Soap – 2000 (?)

Why did I keep a bar of soap in here? This explains why everything smells of soap I guess.

Note – to Self – 1999

Another note too good not to share.

I heart Harley, Matt & Alistair (in that order) (Reminder for tomorrow tell Anthea & Manda about H) Told Tahnee she does too! (H)

This explains why Tahnee was going to be mad at me.

Item – Movie Ticket Stub – 2001

Meet the Parents can’t have been that good. Oh wait yep on the back I’ve written “first date with Mark!”

Note book – Conversation between 3 teenage girls – 2001

We each choose a colour and write back and forth to each other. My colour is red. I “invent” the notion that writing in caps = shouting (take that internet forums) and am largely concerned that I am being left out of the conversation. We are quite enamoured with the words “cocksucker” “fuck” “asshole” and “sex”. One of the other girls compares our female science teacher to Elton John, which in retrospect, is quite unfair. She was rubbish at the piano.

Item – Green Paper that says “I heart M.T.” – 1999

This is with regards to Matt. Who I later decide “sucks” compared to Harley. I still remember to this day the poem I put in his tidy tray. It’s not in the box (I’m sure he’s kept it and treasured it) but it went like this:

Look    See      That    Me       And     Not      My      

Up       Will     I           Love    If         Me       Love    Forgot

And     You     Love    You     I           Love    For      Be

Down  And     You     If         Find    You     You     Will

…and it was.

Book – Friends and Bitches – 2000

The cover of the book actually says “forever” on it, but I clearly used this as a burn book ala Mean Girls even though Mean Girls didn’t exist yet. No, it’s not that bad. There’s a page per friend where I talk about how nice they are to me, or how mean I’ve been to them and then a page on some bitches I don’t like much. I have an impressive vocabulary.

Item – a very crushed up and gross cockroach – 200?

The box is filled with cockroach bits. Perhaps I should remove those. Naaaah.

Next week we move on to a new box! 2002 – I was 14 in 2002. This can only be good.

Lizzy King, Human - A Study. Box 1 Part 1

Box 1 - 1999, 2000, 2001 Part 1

When I was 11 years old I started a box. A box to put my letters in, a box for ticket stubs and photos, diaries and broken things worth keeping. It was 1999. I listened to a boy band called 5ive (so named because there were five of them, and words without letters were lame), and I had a crush on a boy named Matt, and then another boy called Harley. Harley liked Pokemon, I remember, Matt was very blonde and swam a lot.

The next year I made another box, I liked a boy named Mark, I still listened to 5ive and I read Harry Potter like it was going out of fashion, which it definitely wasn’t.

The year after that I suspect one or both of the boxes had broken, so I combined them into a large shoe box with Lynx written on the side. On the lid I wrote

1999

2000

2001

Yrs 6-8

Lynx

:) :)

I don’t know why I was compelled to rewrite the word Lynx, but there you go. I have kept a box for every year since. Well, sometimes I have combined two years in one, and around the time I started wearing smaller, daintier shoes, I had to use two boxes for the one year.

This is a study of my life.

So tomorrow is the second anniversary of my blog. Two years! And now I want to try something new. A new weekly project to sink my teeth into that will hopefully be interesting to other humans. So I’m going to study these boxes like a really shit anthropologist.

The goal is to be as objective as possible, but this will probably not always be the case, as my subject is, you know, me. I will go through each box, and write about the things I find in them. If an object inspires a particular memory, I will try to tell the story as best I remember it, if an item embarrasses me, I will chronicle it anyway. This is not an adventure in guilt, or in explaining myself, or in apologising for past Lizzy. Because, as we will learn in the coming weeks, past Lizzy can be hard to apologise for. She is at times wilfully cruel, selfish and chaotic, but she is also kind and loving and desperate to be included. These are not pleas for understanding, these are facts.

I shall go through the contents of each box as they are stored in it. The items will not be catalogued chronologically in and of themselves, but I will traverse the years in a somewhat linear fashion.

Also, I will try to be funny.

Item: Back Cover of School Diary – 2001

This cover has been ripped from the back of my school issued diary. Or perhaps it fell out. It is one of those trite, overly engineered things the school sometimes tried to do. It is an “autograph page”. Why a year 8 student would need to collect signatures is a mystery, but apparently I did. A handful of names and pictures are drawn there. I remember the pens we used, purple and green. Two areas are blacked out. On closer inspection at least one of them covers the name of a girl I no longer liked. Brutal.

Letter: From Mark – 2001

A Valentine's note from my grade 7 boyfriend, Mark. He apologises for its lateness and hopes I enjoy his present. I had forgotten that he spelt my name “Lizz”.

Extra points for the Superman S

Letter:  From my Auntie – 2000

A letter that must have come with a diary, because it tells me that I should write about the coming years in it. I may have started it, we shall soon see.

Photo: My own face – 17^th June 2001

Ah yes, I was a model, briefly. Or rather, I went and did a test shoot, probably costing my parents a fair amount of money but then hated it and never went back. This is the result of that shoot. There is a very pink background, and they have put make up on my very young face. So young! I am almost 13 but I look about 10. I look a lot like my sister, though she didn’t exist yet.

And thus a star is born

Book: Autographs – 2000

So obsessed with autographs! Here my grade 7 friends wish me good luck and good bye as we will “never see each other again” (ah, ladies, if only we’d known the wonders that facebook would bring). One girl tells me I am “not an evil brocili”, claims she will kill me if I start to like Bardot (a girl band) and ends with the oh-so-charming missive “don’t turn gay”. Lovely.

Flyer: Birch Carrol & Coyle Cinemas – 200?

Log On and Win! Amazing stuff. I have no idea why I kept this, but it is a fantastic time capsule moment. www.birch.com.au was so new and desperate for page views that all you had to do was go to it to go into the draw to win free movies for a year. 

Item: Envelope containing necklace – 2001

I suspect this is the Valentines present from Mark as mentioned previously. I don’t know if I ever wore it. I was not particularly nice to Mark.

Note: to self – 1999

An amazing note to myself, that is too hilarious not to share, so here it is in its entirety:

Harley loves me. He loves me. HE LOVES ME! YES!! Every boy I’ve ever liked has disliked me or I blew it but Harley _______ ________* loves me! And I adore him. I’m obsessed I am! Compared to Harley, Matt sucks! I hope I don’t get into trouble with Tahnee! (Bet you $50 I do)

*Full name eliminated to protect the innocent

I just want to analyse this for a moment. I am 11 at the time of writing. 11. Like… I am 2 years of even hinting at puberty. And so fickle! So brutal! Matt sucks? Poor child. What did he do? Swim away from me in the pool? Who knows? Meanwhile, why is Tahnee going to be mad at me? Have I stolen Harley from her? I just don’t know. I do know that Harley and I never “dated” so I’m not sure how I decided we were madly, passionately in love. Perhaps with some kind of satanic ritual? Meanwhile, I include his full name (including middle name) – creepy? Perhaps. But not as weird as betting myself $50 on something.

Letter – from Tahnee – 1999 or 2000

Oh god. Oh god. Here is this girl I possibly stole a boy from, telling me she loves me like a sister! This is horrific. It’s like Neighbours or something.

Word Processed Letter – from Tahnee – 1999 or 2000

Another letter, telling me (and our friend Anthea) that she loves us, and thanking us for being there for her. At the end she implores us to “always treasure this” which, can I just say, I fucking did. Fuck yes, not a terrible friend after all.

Bam