Another Suitcase in Another Hall
On Saturday I leave for IVLI, a month long camp hosted by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a nationwide club of which I am my chapter's president. I leave in two days and I am about half way packed. Packing for a month reminds me of something about myself. I hate suitcases and packing. In fact, I once said that I think hell will be mountains of things that need to be packed in suitcases. I'm also crazy good at packing suitcases. Both the hatred and talent are born from the fact that I have had to use suitcases far too often for my taste.
Up until I was 17, I lived in the same area. We moved from an apartment to a house when I was two, but I barely remember that. Suitcases were a sign of fun. They meant that we were going to camp, or to see the grandparents, or on vacation. It was two to ten days that you went and had a wonderful time and then you got to come home.
At 17, my family moved to Wisconsin. Let me tell you, moving ten people's possessions several states is not a process I ever want to repeat. And, as you all know by now, I decided I wasn't ready to leave Michigan and I moved back. So I packed suitcases again. After living with family friends for a while, I got a couple of nanny jobs, so I had to pack up again. The following year and a half consisted of me bouncing between my two nanny houses, my friends' houses, and going back to Wisconsin to see the family. I don't know that there was ever a time that I didn't have a bag packed. After moving back to Wisconsin, I spent two weeks in Tennessee at a Summit conference and then started looking into colleges. I got into college and moved to the dorms. More suitcases. And of course, you have to move out every summer, so more suitcases. I spent a summer in Austria. More suitcases. Now here I am preparing for another summer away from home, more suitcases. And, of course, graduate school will mean moving yet again. So, let me impart some of the wisdom I have gained from all of my suitcase usage.
1. If you wouldn't take it with you on a year long trip, do you actually need to own it?
Maybe it's that shirt that your Aunt Carol gave you for Christmas that you ABSOLUTELY LOVE and it's just SO YOU, but you've only worn it once and for some reason, when packing, it just never makes the cut.
Or maybe it's that tchotchke your grandmother left you that holds so much sentimental value, but every time you move into a new dorm or apartment, there just seems to be no shelf space for it, so you leave it in the safe keeping of your mother.
Or maybe you LOVE jewelry, or shoes, or hats, or scarves, and you have a massive collection, but any time you go anywhere there are two staple pieces that seem to go with you and the rest are left unused until you feel guilty and make an effort to shake things up.
I once heard someone say that everyone should put all of their stuff in a storage unit and only get things out and move them into their home when they need them. After a year, whatever is left in the storage unit should just be pitched. I think travelling and packing work much the same way. If you have no desire to take it with you, why do you keep it? Whatever that thing is that never makes the packing list, maybe it's time to let go of it.
2. Take advantage of dressers.
Dressers, cabinets, closets, anything you can put things in and call your own space and organize in your own way. Anything permanent. Anything that says, "I'm here to stay a while." Use them. I know it might seem silly to unpack your suitcase for a few day stay, but when you're traveling a lot, unpacking your suitcase might be the big step to helping you keep your sanity. Even if you're only staying somewhere a short while, unpacking and organizing your belongings helps a place feel like home and makes you feel like you're investing in your stay.
3. Have a home base.
You might be the type of person who loves traveling and is thinking as you read this, "what do you mean you hate suitcases? They mean adventure!" But even you need a home base. It doesn't matter if it's a place you own, or a family member owns, or a friend owns, or even just a hotel you really like, make sure there is some place you can go when all of the shit has hit the fan. Traveling isn't perfect. People get sick, natural disasters hit, funding falls through. Make sure you know a place that you can always go back to and stay as long as you need to, a place where you have a support system that will help you out when everything goes wrong.
4. Home doesn't have to be a specific place.
While it's important to have a home base, that place doesn't necessarily have to be home. I have been asked so many times, "so where's home for you? Michigan or Wisconsin?" The fact of the matter is, there is no easy answer to that. Home, for me, is wherever I feel like I can do my daily thing without inconveniencing someone else. It's wherever I feel like I can spend hours by myself and no one thinks I'm being rude. It's wherever I can just eat whatever/whenever and I'm not messing up anyone else's dinner plans. Right now, that's my parents' house in Wisconsin. During the school year, it's my dorm, and I actually really dislike going to my parents' house overnight. For heavens sake, that means packing bags and disrupting my schedule. At any given moment, where I'm invested and feel comfortable and have a routine that works for me, that place is home, and that place can change. And that's okay. I don't need to have a town to name when people ask me what's home to me.
5. Sometimes it's hard to go back.
The problem with moving around is that every place changes you a little bit. Sure, time changes you too, but I really think place impacts you the most. Different places mean new people, and customs, and experiences, and new ways of doing life. And with every change it gets harder to go back to someplace you've been before, because you remember that place in a certain way and that place remembers you in a certain way and sometimes your experiences change the way you see each other. That can be painful. But if you're willing to approach a place as if it's new and if that place is willing to accept you as you've become, there's always room to revisit.
6. Have a constant.
Trying new things is a good thing to do, but change is hard. In the TV show LOST, people travel between times, which can cause them to become sick or go insane because they don't have anything that stays the same. So they all have a constant, something they can take with them that will never change. Have a constant. Something you can rely on. Something that reduces anxiety. For me, a big constant is pretzels. It's so dumb, but being a person with food allergies, it just helps to know that I have something with me that I can eat and I don't have to be anxious about it. A lot of times I don't even have to open the bag, because I like trying new foods and I can usually find something, but it's totally worth it to know that no matter what happens, pretzels are always something I can eat and enjoy eating. I like to pack other snacks too, for the same reason, but pretzels are always along. I currently have a bag sitting in my room waiting to go to IVLI with me.
So, there you go, six travel tips from someone who hates packing suitcases. And, I know what you're thinking, those tips had nothing to do with suitcases. But here's the thing, suitcases are only scary because they represent a lot more than just a bag. Suitcases are the moment you have to decide what has value and use for you and how you can boil your life down to weighing less than 50 pounds. Suitcases are a symbol of the temporary. Suitcases often mean being a stranger. Sometimes suitcases mean having to invest in new places and sometimes they mean having to face the things you thought you left behind. Suitcases are a sign that everything is about to change. But change is inevitable. So pack that suitcase and go out and face the world like the badass traveler you are.
Up until I was 17, I lived in the same area. We moved from an apartment to a house when I was two, but I barely remember that. Suitcases were a sign of fun. They meant that we were going to camp, or to see the grandparents, or on vacation. It was two to ten days that you went and had a wonderful time and then you got to come home.
At 17, my family moved to Wisconsin. Let me tell you, moving ten people's possessions several states is not a process I ever want to repeat. And, as you all know by now, I decided I wasn't ready to leave Michigan and I moved back. So I packed suitcases again. After living with family friends for a while, I got a couple of nanny jobs, so I had to pack up again. The following year and a half consisted of me bouncing between my two nanny houses, my friends' houses, and going back to Wisconsin to see the family. I don't know that there was ever a time that I didn't have a bag packed. After moving back to Wisconsin, I spent two weeks in Tennessee at a Summit conference and then started looking into colleges. I got into college and moved to the dorms. More suitcases. And of course, you have to move out every summer, so more suitcases. I spent a summer in Austria. More suitcases. Now here I am preparing for another summer away from home, more suitcases. And, of course, graduate school will mean moving yet again. So, let me impart some of the wisdom I have gained from all of my suitcase usage.
1. If you wouldn't take it with you on a year long trip, do you actually need to own it?
Maybe it's that shirt that your Aunt Carol gave you for Christmas that you ABSOLUTELY LOVE and it's just SO YOU, but you've only worn it once and for some reason, when packing, it just never makes the cut.
Or maybe it's that tchotchke your grandmother left you that holds so much sentimental value, but every time you move into a new dorm or apartment, there just seems to be no shelf space for it, so you leave it in the safe keeping of your mother.
Or maybe you LOVE jewelry, or shoes, or hats, or scarves, and you have a massive collection, but any time you go anywhere there are two staple pieces that seem to go with you and the rest are left unused until you feel guilty and make an effort to shake things up.
I once heard someone say that everyone should put all of their stuff in a storage unit and only get things out and move them into their home when they need them. After a year, whatever is left in the storage unit should just be pitched. I think travelling and packing work much the same way. If you have no desire to take it with you, why do you keep it? Whatever that thing is that never makes the packing list, maybe it's time to let go of it.
2. Take advantage of dressers.
Dressers, cabinets, closets, anything you can put things in and call your own space and organize in your own way. Anything permanent. Anything that says, "I'm here to stay a while." Use them. I know it might seem silly to unpack your suitcase for a few day stay, but when you're traveling a lot, unpacking your suitcase might be the big step to helping you keep your sanity. Even if you're only staying somewhere a short while, unpacking and organizing your belongings helps a place feel like home and makes you feel like you're investing in your stay.
3. Have a home base.
You might be the type of person who loves traveling and is thinking as you read this, "what do you mean you hate suitcases? They mean adventure!" But even you need a home base. It doesn't matter if it's a place you own, or a family member owns, or a friend owns, or even just a hotel you really like, make sure there is some place you can go when all of the shit has hit the fan. Traveling isn't perfect. People get sick, natural disasters hit, funding falls through. Make sure you know a place that you can always go back to and stay as long as you need to, a place where you have a support system that will help you out when everything goes wrong.
4. Home doesn't have to be a specific place.
While it's important to have a home base, that place doesn't necessarily have to be home. I have been asked so many times, "so where's home for you? Michigan or Wisconsin?" The fact of the matter is, there is no easy answer to that. Home, for me, is wherever I feel like I can do my daily thing without inconveniencing someone else. It's wherever I feel like I can spend hours by myself and no one thinks I'm being rude. It's wherever I can just eat whatever/whenever and I'm not messing up anyone else's dinner plans. Right now, that's my parents' house in Wisconsin. During the school year, it's my dorm, and I actually really dislike going to my parents' house overnight. For heavens sake, that means packing bags and disrupting my schedule. At any given moment, where I'm invested and feel comfortable and have a routine that works for me, that place is home, and that place can change. And that's okay. I don't need to have a town to name when people ask me what's home to me.
5. Sometimes it's hard to go back.
The problem with moving around is that every place changes you a little bit. Sure, time changes you too, but I really think place impacts you the most. Different places mean new people, and customs, and experiences, and new ways of doing life. And with every change it gets harder to go back to someplace you've been before, because you remember that place in a certain way and that place remembers you in a certain way and sometimes your experiences change the way you see each other. That can be painful. But if you're willing to approach a place as if it's new and if that place is willing to accept you as you've become, there's always room to revisit.
6. Have a constant.
Trying new things is a good thing to do, but change is hard. In the TV show LOST, people travel between times, which can cause them to become sick or go insane because they don't have anything that stays the same. So they all have a constant, something they can take with them that will never change. Have a constant. Something you can rely on. Something that reduces anxiety. For me, a big constant is pretzels. It's so dumb, but being a person with food allergies, it just helps to know that I have something with me that I can eat and I don't have to be anxious about it. A lot of times I don't even have to open the bag, because I like trying new foods and I can usually find something, but it's totally worth it to know that no matter what happens, pretzels are always something I can eat and enjoy eating. I like to pack other snacks too, for the same reason, but pretzels are always along. I currently have a bag sitting in my room waiting to go to IVLI with me.
So, there you go, six travel tips from someone who hates packing suitcases. And, I know what you're thinking, those tips had nothing to do with suitcases. But here's the thing, suitcases are only scary because they represent a lot more than just a bag. Suitcases are the moment you have to decide what has value and use for you and how you can boil your life down to weighing less than 50 pounds. Suitcases are a symbol of the temporary. Suitcases often mean being a stranger. Sometimes suitcases mean having to invest in new places and sometimes they mean having to face the things you thought you left behind. Suitcases are a sign that everything is about to change. But change is inevitable. So pack that suitcase and go out and face the world like the badass traveler you are.
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