If you were fortunate enough to attend college you probably had
upon graduation a box full of lecture notes, papers, notebooks,
random photocopies, timetables, etc, etc. What you then did with
this box will reveal something of your personality.
Those who immediately threw away these items were either possessed
of self-discipline and gumption or else hatred for their field of
study. I am not concerned with those people.
Others will have kept their notes and to them I ask, "why?"
Is it because they may come in useful in the future?
In nearly all cases, no. If you ever want to refer back to something
you learnt will you really dig under a pile of junk to search your
unindexed scrawl? Or will you look it up in the library or on the
Internet?
Do these notes constitute an important record or memento of your
college years?
No. This is why you have a nice shiny degree certificate.
Have you kept these notes because you spent countless hours
half-asleep scribbling them down as the professor droned on at the
front of the class? Then, when exams approached, frantically trying to
decipher the meaning of those incomplete hieroglyphics? Was so much
work was put into the creation of that box of junk that you can't bear
to part with it?
Relax. The benefit you derived from college is contained in your
mind and personality and will not dissipate; it is not bound to your
collection of papers. Don't let them own you. Take a deep breath and
throw them away.
You will feel much better for it.