For as long as I can remember, my mom has stored napkins in the console of her car.  I always thought it was a really weird habit, considering she never uses them.  When I was six years old, I asked her why she did that if she never used them.  I remember exactly what she said: “My daddy, your grandfather, used to do this and now it’s become a bad habit of mine too.”  After that moment, I continued to think that habit was strange.  Why keep something around if you never use it?

Now I am seventeen years old with a car of my very own.  I keep it remotely clean and organized, except for the massive amounts of napkins in the console.  I remember the first time it happened:  I drove myself to Starbucks for the very first time, as I was leaving I subconsciously grabbed a handful of napkins and proceeded to stuff them in the console of my car without thinking anything of it.  Three weeks later, my mom and I drove my car.  She was looking around to make sure I’d been keeping my car decent and couldn’t believe what she found.  In the console were at least thirty napkins from various restaurants and none of them had been used.

It was that moment that I realized why we were both hoarding napkins.  It was to keep the memory of my grandfather alive.  The only connection to my grandfather I had was napkins.  No matter where I am, if there are napkins I grab a handful and store them in my console to never be used.  They are there to remind me of my grandfather.