Oh The Joys of Packing

Packing is never easy. It's the process of picking up the pieces of your life - throwing away a lot of things you can't remember why you kept in the first place, packing away most of the things of meaning to you, and leaving behind memories. It's the process of leaving the familiar, no matter how much you liked it or not, in order to have the new and unknown. Is where you're going instead of where you are going to be better or worse? Will you be able to live there or will another move have to occur? It's a gamble in every sense.

I feel as if I've been packing all summer. Before my knee surgery in June, I started going through everything in my meager room and organizing it, getting rid of three or four trash bags of things left over from high school and beyond. I did this so that I could easily access things that I love or be able to direct one of the parental units to the appropriate place. I was in my element, cleaning and organizing even though usually I'm not a very clean or organized person - just random bouts of OCD - but it was nice.

After my surgery, however, I was able to move around a lot better than I initially thought and so my room returned to its former chaotic shape with just a hint of the organization of before underneath the layers of... well... layers. Humans, for a reason I have yet been able to explain, tend to layer things, pile things, until you can barely believe that the entire pile hasn't collapsed yet and you're quietly performing a physics experiment in the back of your head - if I place one more item on top, right here, will it fall or will it balance out the item tucked haphazardly in the middle?

And so my summer went, letting things pile on top of each other, my hardwood floor a distant memory and the shape of my desk and shelves barely discernible underneath all of the rubble. I was, of course, at home in the chaos because even though I had no idea where anything was, I had a general idea of where it was and I knew if I dug enough, it was sure to turn up. This did not occur in the case of the Target gift card that I received for graduation ($100) and didn't turn up until yesterday afternoon, but in nine out of ten cases, I was able to find what I was looking for.

Now it is nearly August and I'm counting down both the days till my sister's wedding (five, not including today) and the days remaining until I meet the person I've spent a few hours of my life conversing with (i.e. my new roommate) and I make a transfusion of my old life as a high schooler into that of a college student proper (twenty-five days, not including today). You could say the stress levels are high and the pressure is on most definitely.

But even as I complain, I look at it this way. My sister initially went to a college closer to where we live and I'm going to a college five and a half hours away, one way. She was able to come home on weekends, I'll be lucky to see some of my friends and family in person once a month with the way gas prices have sky rocketed. My sister didn't pack any of her stuff up, nearly, she just left it on the shelves and things thinking she'll be home every weekend. After about two years of her going to the local college, it became apparent that she wasn't coming home as often and we could better use the her room as a guest room. So with her permission, we packed everything of hers up and stuck it in the closet or the attic. I have a distinct advantage because I'm doing my packing and I'll better know what I did and did not pack, what I got rid of and what I've kept.

That's the good news, at least. Familiarity with the things in the box, and I know I pack well. Bad news is that I currently have one large plastic container that will be going in the attic consisting of various odds and ends of my childhood and so forth (a backpack decorated and signed when I was in eighth grade by most of my friends back then, for example), one smaller plastic container that contains all of my violin and piano music that has accumulated for generations in some cases, and two cardboard boxes filled of breakables and things I don't want out in the open for prying eyes (*coughcoughmyfather'smothercoughcough*). All of these are staying here.

As for what I've packed to take with me to college... One large plastic container containing my winter clothes, one large plastic container containing rugs,a comforter, and other knickknacks, one tightly packed cardboard box filled with room necessities such as post it notes, markers, pens, calendar and the likes, and a purple laundry bag with new sheets for the extra long twin bed, pillows, blankets, etc. That's all? you query. Not by half. I have in my closet two of those plastic drawer tower things. One of them is quite large (two shallow drawers, two deeper drawers) that houses such things as sleep things, shoes, belts, ties, and more. The smaller one is only three drawers (of equal size) that house, in order, my games/distractions/what have you, my writing tablets/cards/letter writing things, and school supplies. So although I didn't pack them, per se, they are also coming with me. And on top of that, I still have to pack my books and even more school supplies left over from high school.

I'm sure you've taken note, by now, how I seem to have forgotten a few of the essentials of dorm living such as a fridge, posters, a microwave, so on and so forth. Actually, I haven't, its just there's no need to really pack those any differently, so I'm set. Worry not. Thankfully, I'm nearly done packing. The only problem I foresee is having to cart all of this there. I think I'll make the suggestion to the parental units that since a family friend is coming up to see me sometime that since he's already making the trip to also help bring up some of my things. Even though I'm an English major, it doesn't take much to figure out that there's only so much that a Jeep can hold in one trip.