I archived my personal emails in a private Hotmail account. Did you know Hotmail clears your inbox if the account is inactive for 4-6 weeks?
I did.
Back when I was sentimental, I’d log into my private account every now and then to keep it active. But life happened, and I stopped signing in for a while. Tonight, I discovered my inbox empty. Gone are the personal emails dating back to 1997—the one from my first boyfriend in 9th grade. Love notes, breakups, makeups, and all my high school correspondence with my best friends. Over a decade of documented drama, vanished.
Next, my hard drive might decide to end it all, erasing files from 1999 and digital photos from 2002. But I won’t panic; I’ve backed up everything onto DVDs and an external hard drive. I could’ve backed up my emails too, but in a way, I wanted to let go and didn’t have the heart to delete them myself.