My Favorite Part: Packing

So I hate packing.

I always have.

And packing for 4 months...going to a country I’ve never traveled to before...where I would experience three seasons in...certainly did not change that.

Since packing is such an ordeal for me; I decided to bring you along as I struggle to subdue the natural “over-packer” inside of me and fit everything I need in a suitcase, a carry-on, and a backpack.

Empty suitcases

About a week before I was set to depart, I decided to lay out my empty suitcases in my room.  Throughout my final week of work, I used this as a means to start putting together some of the items I had been collecting for my travels.  I knew the weekend before I left would be overwhelming as it was so this was an attempt to give myself some sense of accomplishment for the time being.  The week flew by of course and at this point my suitcases were piled high with all these random last minute purchases and study abroad “essentials” I had gathered. 

Absolute chaos

Now originally I thought of concocting some sort of do’s and don’t’s packing list for this portion of my experience.  But I thought better of it since in reality, it would be an entire list of don’t’s.  My packing is stressful enough for my family and no one should ever have to go through what I put them through.  First of all, I cannot pack alone.  As soon as I’m left alone I ignore all my responsibilities as an able adult to pack a bag full of clothes.  I will have my stuff spread out all around my room and simply lay in the piles of clothes I’ve pulled out for hours on end just to avoid making decisions about what to bring.  It’s in these times of procrastination that result in late night, last minute packing fiascos.  Having avoided these decisions as long as humanly possible, I find a new way to dodge picking one shirt or the other­—I pack both.  And this is where the overpacking comes in.  In desperate situations I even poll my family until I get the response I knew I wanted all along, which is always to pack both.  By this point, I’ve emotionally exhausted them enough to give in and encourage my overpacking habits.

Luckily, these are the moments my dad will step in as the expert packer in the family.  If there is one foolproof hack I know about packing, it’s to always roll your clothes.   My dad travels a decent amount for work and he has always packed this way and stands by its effectiveness every time.  Within the past few years I have adopted this life hack and I must say it has transformed my packing abilities.  While I may refuse to decide what clothes to bring, when it comes to rolling them up all my problems cease to exist.  I find this part of the experience significantly easier than the rest.  Not only I can manage this part on my own, but at this point all the decisions have been made and there’s always so much space to work with...until there’s not.  

Neatly packed suitcases

And this is exactly what happened to me today.  I was packing so peacefully thinking I had all this space when I realized I had forgot something and then another thing and then something else.  This spiraled into a carry-on with a visible bulge squeezing into the overhead bin and an overstuffed suitcase weighing in at 8lbs above the limit.  Thinking I was doing so well to facing the disappointing truth led to tears ridiculously shed over a shampoo and conditioner bottle not making the cut and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries to eat my feelings.  Funny thing is, I can just buy that stuff there, I always knew I could, this is just how I pack and how I react when I pack.  So moral of the story, unless you are going to roll your clothes, none of the above information is of any use to anyone packing for any type of trip.