The Packing Conundrum

Hello everyone! It has been quite some time since I have posted on this blog, but that's because I have been too busy having such a fun-filled summer in Boise and all over the United States!  To sum up this summer briefly would be impossible (especially with summarization skills such as mine), but I can proudly say that it was very productive yet fun filled each and every day.

Now to get to the point: I LEAVE FOR SPAIN IN 4 DAYS! I am somewhere between excited and terrified.  However, as my aunt told me this summer before my triathlon: excitement comes from the same place as fear, it's all about how you label it.  So, I have chosen to look at the symptoms I am experiencing when I think about my upcoming adventure as side effects of nothing but pure excitement.

These next few days are bound to be some of the longest and shortest days of my entire summer.  Short because I am trying to see as much of my Boise friends and family as possible before I leave the country, and long because I have a looming problem ahead of me that I am not sure how to approach: packing.

I must admit, I am notorious in my family for being the heaviest bag packer.  Not only because I am a woman and therefore a victim of the heavy packing stereotype, but also because I am an extremely over analytical woman, meaning that I think of almost every possible scenario, outfit, weather mishap, or other problem that may require cramming yet another item into an already overstuffed suitcase.  I always to fill or overfill my large LL Bean duffel bag for any trip I go on, whether it be camping in the mountains for a few days, a week long beach trip, or even an overnight sleepover.

The Madrid, Spain program I am about to participate in will last for a grand total of three months.  My over skeptical, over packing brain cannot even begin to comprehend all of the things I might possibly want to pack for a three month period.  So I have done what any person of my condition ought to do; I have written a checklist, one that I have revised and shortened at least five times over.  In the next few days I will attempt to fit said checklist items all into one checked bag, one carry on, and my laptop messenger bag, armed with nothing but my ever present determination to succeed and the knowledge that I must strive to reform my heavy packing ways.  Wish me luck, I will most certainly need it.