Data entry is not a fun project to take on, but as an admin over the last few years I have learned that it is inevitable that I will partake in data entry at least twice throughout the year. By data entry I mean HUGE projects that make my eyes hurt from moving them back and forth from files to my computer screen. I am currently working on a data entry project that is “low priority” but has been put on my plate because I am the newbie. One good thing about this data entry project is that I can’t really mess it up because there is no current set up for what I’m doing. On top of that, I have found that my research skills are becoming sharper every minute.
But this current data entry project of mines makes me wonder what a data entry project of my life would look like. If I had 70+ boxes of documents and asked someone to archive them, what would the headings be? Take for example, my “captain’s log” from my 5th grade project on voyaging across the world. This could go in several spots. It could go under “children’s art” or “school projects.” It could be “5th grade-Ms. Hein’s class” or “journals/diaries.” But putting such headings on this project would not tell the story of how I wrote about my “negro deck hand, Sammy” and how my teacher called my mom to find out where I heard the word “negro.” (I heard it on a documentary show about slavery one night and I was into using new words so I used it.) I would categorize this under “that’s Jyl.”
What about my piano medals and trophies? They could go under “music” or “awards.” But those categories wouldn’t talk about how my brother and I used to play duets or how my great grandma, Mammy Mammy, loved listening to us play piano. It wouldn’t explain my homemade dresses or how I used to memorize my music because my teacher thought that perfection was key. It wouldn’t explain all the times I sat at the piano bench glaring at my mom when she made me practice or when my scales weren’t fluid enough.
Or you could look at my box of letters and notes I’ve kept since I was in elementary school. Yes, it may be excessive and if a person were to actually archive these, they might ask me if they could only keep the important ones or if they could all be tossed. They could put it under the category ”letters/cards” but that wouldn’t tell about how I kept all the cards my grandpa gave me for every holiday and birthdays–it’s the only thing I have left of him and I can’t let that go. It wouldn’t tell about the “anti-date” stamp I have from Camp Elim that JB carved one summer to encourage our campers that dating wasn’t the reason you went to summer camp, and friendships last longer. JB died on December 14th 4 years ago.
You see, no one can archive our lives because they don’t fit into categories. Try as hard as I may, my life cannot be boxed or planned. Nothing can be shoved into what I want it to be, but I try. Like any data entry project, I over do it and my eyes start to hurt. It’s like I try to clean and organize my life so that there’s not a mess on the floor, but in all reality, that’s how it looks best because when everything is put away it’s not put in the right spot or it could go anywhere. I don’t think I can change how I try to plan and organize even though I am well aware that it doesn’t work, but the comfort that everything that happens in life has a place is too hard to give up, and in a world that is constantly changing, I can’t help but try to fit everything into boxes and categories.


