Packing for college before my freshman year was exciting. All of the new things I bought for my dorm held so much promise, I knew I had everything I needed for a great first year of college. Flash forward a year to the present day. I've just finished packing up my life into my little Toyota Rav4 and am contemplating every decision that ever got me here. Okay, that's a little over-dramatic, but I am rethinking every item of clothing I've ever bought.

Before moving back home for the summer I cleared out my closet and sold/donated about half of my clothes. The reason for such a huge clean-out was that I was overwhelmed by the amount of clothes I had and knew I only needed about a quarter of them. So, I suppressed the inner-hoarder in me and threw half the clothes I didn't need into a pile and refused to look back. But, then summer came and along with summer came a pretty nice paycheck and naturally I bought more unnecessary clothes. Now, it's time for me to pack up all of these items and drive them the two hours from my hometown to Lexington, Kentucky and again try to fit all my clothes into my small dorm room. The grief that I encountered while packing all of these things up came in 5 stages...

Here are the 5 stages of packing for college:

Stage 1: Excitement

I can't wait to see all my friends and decorate my room!! This year will be perfect and I barely have any clothes, so packing will be no problem!! Yay, woooo, excitement! I love college!!

My somewhat small suitcase got me all excited, but then I realized I had only packed the clothes that were in drawers and not hanging in my closet....

Stage 2: Regret

This is when I started regretting all of the things I bought all summer. I may have fit what I thought was half my clothes in my suitcase and then I looked at my closet. my dreams of packing light were dead.

Stage 3: Creativity

At this point I was questioning how in the world I'm supposed to transport that much clothes. So, I went to the worldwide web of Pinterest and found a crafty little trick where you bag all your clothes on hangers so they stay together and you can just neatly hang them in your closet.

Stage 4: Triumph

With the help of my engineer dad the triumphant moment of loading everything in my car finally came. The door shut all the way and I could see out my back window. My packing had been a success.

Stage 5: Acceptance

My dreams of packing light were dead and I realized minimalism will never be a trend I can follow, so I accepted my fate and had my mom take a picture of me with all my many things.