Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Packing Woes or Return to Oregon!

Katie D.

January 2, 2010 - 1:14 PM

January 2, 2009
1:14 pm

I am usually a fabulous packer. I travel relatively light. For a week-long trip, I am perfectly happy with a backpack and a purse. I don't bring more clothing than I need, and I never pack extra shoes. I take the fast-track line in the airport, and feel slightly competitive about the efficiency of the packing process.

All this was destroyed for my return trip to Oregon.

I made a surprise purchase of a backpacking backpack while I was in Colorado with my family for winter break. It was massively on sale, and now I'm equipped for some serious outdoor adventures. But this meant a whole extra piece of luggage to bring back.

I went crazy. I looked at all my books, my craft supplies, my room decorations, and realized that I could check a bag and have all of these favorite possessions with me in Eugene. It had something to do with my nostalgia as well: I could bring back pieces of my childhood home and make Eugene the real home I thought of. I spent wonderful hours dreaming about all the things I would be able to put on my bedroom walls, and the craft supplies I wouldn't have to buy because it was coming with me. I procured some professional-looking shoes from my mom's cast-offs, and I would be able to bring them back to Eugene with me. I went through the books and made some delighted choices for my Eugene bookshelf.

Then I started packing.

It was a nightmare. I had totally overcommited myself. I couldn't bring both the beautiful basket full of yarn and the sun-and-moons mobile my dad had picked out for me for Christmas. I couldn't bring a book of Mary Oliver's poetry and Battlestar Galactica Season One. And was it worth packing those shoes after all?

The good news is that my wonderful mother came and sat with me through the final frustrated stages of packing and helped me realize it didn't really matter. She also offered to ship some of the overflow to me via snail mail.

I realized after the fact that my extreme frustration and discomfort with this packing mess had more to do with the larger picture then it did with the packing itself.

I was moving the most important pieces of my life from my parents' home to my own. I was telling my family that I was taking these things "home." And then it didn't all fit! I was in an awkward and un-zippable conundrum of finally being ready to fully leave the childhood home behind, and then not being able to. Double awkward. Then it made me want to cry like a twelve-year-old, and that didn't help either.

But the good news is that the most essential items were packed, as were a few things that are pure self-indulgence. The amazing backpacking backpack got tested out with more than forty pounds of books, shoes, gifts, and mementos. I got to spend my last hour at home playing cards with my parents, instead of shoving items into every last cranny of suitcase space.

Then, best of all, I got to head to the airport with both parents, and take a long look at the Rocky Mountains and remember how beautiful this place is. A few hours later as I flew into Portland, I remembered again how much I love this city, and the city of Eugene, and all of the Northwest. As I lugged my ridiculous baggage into my friend's car, I thought again of how wonderful it is to be making my home here in Oregon, and how happy I am to have the chance to go back and see my family, and then return to a place I love.

So now it's time to get everything unpacked and arranged in my Eugene home. Each book in place, the new wall hangings carefully placed, and the childhood pictures arranged on the walls. I'll have a new backpack sitting in the corner, consistently reminding me to get out into the beautiful Oregon wilderness, and the favorite books reminding me to take some time to appreciate a good story.

All those packing struggles were worth it. I'm home.