Unless you commute to school or live ridiculously close to campus, you’ve experienced the struggle. Somehow you managed to bring all of your precious belongings to school, so why does it always seem that when you try to pack at the end of the year the amount of stuff has doubled?
Each year I tell myself that I’m going to pack lighter next time, but it never actually happens. And now, during the summer, as we pack up to return to D.C. for the summer or vacation, we all face the hassle that is packing. As I inevitably struggle with all of my belongings and question my existence within the human race as I realize how materialistic we all are, I typically go through the following phases:
1. The Optimist This phase of “Hey, it’s not so bad” and “I’ll be done in a jiffy!” Usually ends immediately after opening your closet.
2. The Neat Freak As impending doom sets in you figure the best way to tackle it is to stay organized and maintain a system.
3. The Rebel You give up on the system about two seconds after you start it.
4. The Faker At this point you’ve gone through three phases — with nothing to show for it — so you pretty much put anything anywhere as long as it looks like packing.
5. The Napper Extraordinaire It’s only been like four minutes of packing but whatever.
6. The Foodie Carbs and protein, you know, for the heavy lifting. (Not to be confused with the procrastination phase, though the two are inextricably intertwined.)
7. The Procrastinator Probably a good time to catch up on Full House right? No? OK well I’m doing it anyway.
8. The Crier It’s been 12 HOURS now and you only put two shirts in a suitcase so far. There are a lot of emotions happening. Get your stuff together.
9. The Real Person Who Takes Over Your Body for a While to Actually Pack There are tears, sweat, phone calls to loved ones and sometimes a little blood. But you CAN and WILL do it.
10. The Reflector Now that victory has been achieved, you realize that you have to unpack everything as soon as you get to your destination. You realize how much easier it would be if you just never went anywhere. You promise to never get so disorganized again. Just know, you won’t keep these promises.
Happy packing!
