Suitcases.

Suitcases come in all shapes and sizes. Some are big. Most are smaller. Some are coloured and quirky, more often they’re a standard grey thing on wheels, often a bit wonky and worn. But all have one thing in common. Their purpose. It is two fold. First- the fit all your belongings in. And second- to get them from one place to another. Simple. Or so you might think…

The problem with suitcases it that no one has so far come up with one that will pack itself. And the problem with that is that neither do I like packing, nor am I good at it. Whenever I try to pack, I just end up with several piles of mess, a sore head, a long to do list and a realization that I own too much stuff and don’t know where half of it is. This summer has been a summer of packing. I packed up my uni stuff and unpacked it at home. I thought seen as I wouldn’t be returning to my beloved Brum this year I should properly unpack it, so I put everything away in safe places to make packing for my year abroad easier. Yeah right. I packed for my trip to Spain, unpacked, and repacked every weekend for a weekend away. This packing was SO worthwhile. I have had the most truly fabulously amazingly wonderful summer of my life…ahhh it was lush <3. But then it ended and I packed again and came home, unpacked my suitcase, whilst thinking that 5 days later I would have to pack again for family holidays, after which I would have 3 days to unpack and repack for my year abroad. So I thought I would get a head start. Once again, yeah right. All that unpacking I did at the start of the summer in order to ‘make things easier’ got annoying as I forgot all the safe places I’d put things in. The number of things I have lost and the amount of time I have spent looking for them is starting to get a little riddiculous. The latest thing I turned my room upside down to search for was the 200euros I earnt in Spain, this is an all time high of my losing things ability (I eventually found it, in my jewellery box, obviously).

So now as I look around my room, I see an open suitcase. It is filled with piles of clothes, books, a few cheeky photos chucked in to help avoid feeling homesick. But my open suitcase means more to me than the fact I need to stop procrastinating and start packing. It represents the start of an amazing journey, one that already promises so much excitement and so many opportunities, so many new friends and so many new experiences, probably a little bit of sadness from missing my amazing friends and family, but many more smiles and so much laughter, lots of speaking French, a bit of working in the European Parliament (eeek!!) and perhaps a little studying…! So as I my suitcase fulfils its first purpose and prepares itself for its second, I am reminded of why we bother to pack, why suitcases exist at all. For excitement. For adventure. For experiences. For YEARS ABROAD!!!

I will be keeping a blog of my year abroad. Please keep in touch!!