I thought about this idea when I was considering packing lightly. I am going to Italy in January, and I as I get excited about the trip, I have thought about how tough it's going to be for me to keep my packing light and under fifty pounds. I was thinking about how heavy some of my winter clothes are, and I tried to decide on what jacket I should take for the wintery weather. I began to think about all the jackets in my lifetime; some were expensive, some were cheaply made. I know I have surely forgotten many, but the ones I do remember tend to map out my childhood pretty well. I wish I could describe every jacket I have ever owned and its place in my life, but for the sake of brevity, I will stick to the highlights.

1. The first jacket I remember having is the bright pink one I took on my first trip to New York City. I think I only remember it from the pictures I have seen on Facebook. It had that waxy texture of a raincoat but was also soft, and it clearly kept me warm because I do not remember being unhappy due to the cold. In fact, I think I wanted to see snow so badly, and it did snow when we were in a taxi leaving the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was the first snow I remember seeing fall from the sky.

2. My first real jacket was my yellow North Face fuzzy jacket that every kid seemed to have at the time. I specifically wanted a white one with light brown swirls, but my parents had to break it to me that a custom-made design was not going to be possible for my Christmas gift. I somehow settled on yellow as my immediate second choice, and I do not remember anyone else having a yellow North Face coat in my elementary school. I got amazing wear out of this jacket, and I eventually had to replace it.

3. A bright blue fuzzy North Face coat replaced my old yellow one, and this one was the jacket of my middle school years. However, like my presence in middle school, this new style of the North Face standard fuzzy jacket was much more awkward than my last one. It had a hood that I hated because it would mess up my hair, and the inside was fuzzy and would shed all over my clothes.

4. I do not really know when to place this jacket on my timeline, but at some point, I received an olive green Gap corduroy jacket from my cousin Lindsey as a hand-me-down. The only reason I am including it is because it is the same jacket that Gabriella wears on her first day of school in High School Musical.

5. Of my winter jackets from high school, I loved this huge kind-of-fleece gray jacket that was my mom’s for the longest time. She did not want this one anymore, and it was perfect. It is oversized and comfortable as well as very warm. It is a blessing I had it during my junior year because I wore it during the infamous Snowpacolypse when I had to walk home through the snowy and panicked Alabama roads. It, like the first jacket I can remember, also traveled to New York with me.

6. Continuing in television-inspired jackets, after watching the series Freaks and Geeks, I had to have a Lindsay Weir jacket. In the series, when Lindsay begins to find herself and make friends with the freaks, she starts to wear her dad’s old army jacket. I wanted one exactly like it, so I settled for one I found at Belk after a long day of searching. Now, I see jackets like hers everywhere, but at the time, it was difficult to find one.

7. My new favorite jacket is another North Face, though this one is more of a weather-enduring men's jacket rather than a children’s coat. It was my Uncle John’s, and I cannot wait for the cold weather because I want to wear it. This is the jacket I want to take to Italy, and I think it will help me endure the cold. I want to take more than one, but I’ll have to see how light I can pack. To think of all the life I still have ahead of me is impossible, but thinking about all of the coats I will have is easier to picture.