Packing your life into a suitcase: An Erasmus Experience, The Beginning

              On September 1st, I will be leaving my small town in the suburbs for Glasgow, for 4 months. Leaving for such a long time comes with several tasks attached. One of them and one of the most stressful has been packing. How do you figure out which parts of your life to pack up and take with you and which parts to leave behind? How do you predict what you'll miss and what will remind you of home? How do you fit all these things that have formed your sense of belonging and comfort and fit them in a suitcase? What things have formed your sense of belonging and comfort? Are those things intrinsically tied to material goods? Can they be something metaphorical?

                Sure, I guess they can. But when you're living in a different country, away from your family and friends, you don't really tend to find comfort in metaphors. How do you shrink your life so that it can fit the contents of luggage?

                I've thought about this a lot, recently. I've delayed the packing process - which I know will come back to bite me in the butt - because I'm struggling to figure out how to streamline the way I live. What things define me? How much of myself is in the way I dress, the way my bedroom is decorated, the accessories I wear, the books I read, even the way I cook? If I leave any of them behind will I lose a portion of myself? Will I benefit from being stripped of the things I think define me in this new adventure? Will being so far away from my comfort zone change the things I think define me? Jesus. Never in a million years did I think that packing a suitcase would send me into a full blown identity crisis.

                I guess that's the funny thing about this whole experience - it hasn't even started and it is already shaping the way I see myself and the world around me. Doing things the challenge you, can also challenge the way you see yourself and the most seemingly futile tasks can trigger conversations inside your head and make you question how you have been living your life so far. I'm scared and nervous and terrified and excited about what's to come and packing my life into a suitcase is just the beginning. 

You can follow me on Instagram here for cool pics of a cool city when I get to my destination.