Nowadays doing research is a piece of cake for students. They have all the conveniences right at their homes. During my time, we had to stay long hours in the library, sometimes even get on the line just to reserve a book overnight. But now, with the advent of the Internet, anyone wishing to obtain information about any topic can simply google it.

However, I can say that googling a topic is not the only way to obtain best results in research. This I found out while cleaning out some shelves the other day, in which I stumbled upon piles of assorted old magazines. (Now, this is what I don’t like when cleaning and fixing stuff. I take longer than usual because I browse. But I had no regrets really because of this great find.) I looked into these old magazines and was impressed by the wealth of information stored in them.

Before starting this clean up, I was meaning to discard whatever old, unused stuff stored in the shelves. I was planning to go really minimal in our home by letting go of whatever is old and unused. Only the basics, so to speak. But finding these old magazines made me think twice. (I decided to let go of old textbooks though. I bundled them up to donate in public schools where they are more needed.)

While we marvel at the gift of technology, we must not also set aside things of value that may become real treasures in the future. Ten, fifteen or twenty years from now, I can visualize my children and grandchildren marveling at these reading materials that I decided to keep today. And what do you know - instead of just clicking on google - they might derive more knowledge from this stack of old magazines and even truly enjoy the feel of the glossy pages which might be of rarity by that time.