Are You Sure?

Are you sure you want to delete this/these file/files/folder/folders/program/programs?"

"Yes, I'm sure! I think... Gulp."

It has been so long since I've had a new computer, I'd forgotten the width and breadth of the process of transferring data from the old to the new, followed by the "sterilizing" of the old machine for re-purposing.

It's intense!

I've filled an eight-gigabyte portable USB device three times over; waited patiently for hours; checked and rechecked that files have reached their new destination folders; checked and re-checked that those same files have been deleted from their old folders.

Along the way, files I thought were important have been summarily dismissed. They didn't make the cut, so to speak.

Part of me enjoys the process immensely; loves the feeling I've cleaning out and refreshing. Another part of me - an old, old part of me - gets stuck in millisecond increments on the, "But what if I need it?" factor.

It takes vigilance to supersede that factor even today when I understand so much more than I ever have.

I'll continue agreeing to delete until I'm done; until my personality has been completely removed from the machine that served me for nearly nine years - about a century in computer years, I suspect.

When I'm done, it will be ready for its next owner and then it will be their task to be sure.