We found ourselves deep down memory lane not too long ago as we nostalgically went though a personal email inbox, literally sorting though years of emails. We found everything from emails for job applications (complete with what was then a résumé that left a tad to be desired), emails that detailed a once heartbreaking and drawn-out break up, intense and love letter-like emails from a former fling, emails sent to our friends while living it up on vacation, email chains among family members that detailed upcoming holiday or milestone birthday celebrations, and even those creepy emails that remained ignored. Call us unorganized, but we haven’t deleted one single email from our personal email account – and we’re now glad we didn’t. As we discovered, there are some benefits to not hitting the “delete” button right away
You’ll Laugh and Smile
Certain emails – especially email chains among the girls or the guys that immediately followed that unforgettable weekend away – are always filled with inside jokes, stories you once thought you’d never forget, and hilarious banter that reminds you of how much you love and miss your friends (and just how epic that bachelor or bachelorette weekend was). You will also stumble over other feel-good gems, like that e-card that your mom helped your grandma send on your birthday, the email that announced the births of special little people, and even heartfelt thank-you notes from friends and family. Who knows, you may also come across some half decent joke emails from back in the day when people had time for that.
You’ll Put Your Relationship Status into Perspective
Reading through old emails between you and your current significant other (SO), perhaps even ones from the start of your relationship (or before that), may be a healthy exercise in evaluating where you are now in relation and how the two of you have grown…or faded. If you’ve recently conquered a broken heart, reading heart-wrenching emails from the height of the demise of that situation may make you realize just how over him or her that you are…and you may even shake your head in disbelief as to how foolish you were to even waste one tear or typed word on them. Reading deep and passionate emails from a former fling may just make you realize you’re ready to fall for someone in that capacity again (just not for him or her, right?)
You’ll Appreciate How Far You’ve Come in Your Career
When reading sent cover letters, resumes and other emailed professional correspondence from years ago – when the entire city was intimidating and the workforce seemed worlds away – you will (hopefully) feel better about how far you’ve come as how you’ve shed your various shades of green over the years. You may even realize you once corresponded with someone whose path you’ve since crossed professionally. Despite promotions, bonuses, awards and recognition, perhaps the most satisfying and telling measure of professional success is how you have confidently grown into your own skin and profession as an individual…and a telling way to witness the change is to read your fresh-out-of-school emails, where your intimidation and youthfulness almost resonates off the screen.
You Can Fact Check
Not deleting emails makes fact checking – dates, times, birthdays, addresses and the names of friends’ spouses and children – a tad easier for the scatterbrain. Your friend isn’t on Facebook and you need to know the date of her birthday? No problem; you can search her husband’s name in your inbox and pull up the only email from him you have, which details the plans for her birthday the year prior. Not to mention, of course, emails leave a written trail, so if you need to remind anyone of promises made or things said, referring to a previous email makes it easy to do so.
You Realize What You’re Missing
When you come across an email chain from that softball team you played on that one summer, or that charity you were once so active in, or that group of friends you have drifted from, you may realize that you miss those things and question why they are not in your life. It may inspire you to reconnect with former passions, pastimes and people.
Of course, this is a glass half-full approach to combing through your email inbox and all of the above points can, of course, be turned on their head. Finding an email from a former SO or passionate fling may make you miss them more; you may find emails from people that make you cringe (like the time you and your best friend got into that ridiculous fight); you may sadly realize that life was better “back in the day”; and you may come across an email from someone who has passed that makes you cry. Either way, though we have since deleted the emails that will serve us little good, we are happy we’ve kept them all. Not only did it serve for hours of reflection on a rainy day sick in bed – much like rummaging through a scrapbook or shoe box of childhood keepsakes as a teenager – it served as a reminder of where we have come from and the experiences, people and places that have all collectively shaped who we are now.
