As a rising freshman, the prospect of college suddenly became a whole lot more real when my mother dumped a large suitcase on the counter in my room, open, empty and ready to shuttle me towards Cal with the pieces of home I want to remember.
On a principle I try to be organized about my whole packing process (‘try’ being the key word here), but let’s be honest; packing for anything, even something as important as college packing, tends to have a mind of its own. There’s lots of old stuff being thrown out, new stuff landing at the front door, tokens of memories being tucked into hidden suitcase pockets, and of course, any amount of college merchandise you can get your hands on being showcased (I myself currently own no such merchandise – blasphemy, I know – but I’m getting there).
One of the first things people will tell you about college packing is not to go overboard. As an international student, it makes even more sense to do so – you don’t want to be carrying suitcases full of clothes and supplies that might not even fit in with the kind of lifestyle on your college campus. Besides, if you miss something, you can just buy it once you move into the dorms, right?
Regardless, you’ll still carefully take down the pictures that hang on your bedroom walls, reliving the days on which they were taken with nostalgia. You’ll roll up posters of your favorite band, pack fandom merchandise and bag up those vacation souvenirs that’ll serve as great conversation starters someday. You’ll dust off the physical copies of books and music records (the ones that you can’t bear to part with despite the availability of online versions), because you want to remember what it felt like to read those pages and hear those words for the first time.
And of course, you’ll have to do the mandatory packing too. You’ll meticulously tear apart your wardrobe to figure out which clothes you’re definitely going to use (trusty flannels, comfortable staple jeans and warm sweatshirts stay forever). You’ll organize medical records and financial documents because you’ll have to be responsible for yourself for the next four years (yes, you're an adult now and that's what adults do). You’ll pack your passport and driver’s license and brand new credit card (because you’re finally eighteen and you need to build a credit history, right?).
And socks. You’ll need to pack socks.
There’s nothing unorganized about packing for college. You can’t just throw things in a bag and show up at the residence halls with the expectation that it’s enough. College is a whole new beginning; one of the only times in life where you’ll have the opportunity to reinvent yourself (if you want to, of course). The truth about packing for college is that it’s a whole bundle of emotions that you didn’t think you’d have to deal with until after you flew the nest. It’s about finding an emotional balance while you pack away things that used to represent your life thus far, and make the mental space for newer things you will bring into your life in the future.
Because even in the most material sense, the choices you make about what to bring to your new beginning (in this instance: what you pack for college) say a lot about the kind of beginning you’re looking for. So pack wisely.
