I know no one who likes to pack and I would put myself at the top of that list. Even when I travelled regularly for work and had it down to a science, I still hated it. As I prepare for my first big trip in five years, I am a little rusty but my dislike of the whole process remains strong. Why do we have such an aversion to filling a suitcase even if we love to travel?
To pack you have to unpack your life. You disassemble all the things you use everyday in order to take yourself with you when you go. It’s like those pop-up stores that appear one day and vanish the next. Choose, box, move, unbox, display, drawer, hang. Trip over. Box, move, unbox, display, drawer, hang. You are basically taking your one-woman show on the road, props in tow a la Carrot Top. It’s a lot of work both coming and going and that alone may be the reason we all dread it, no matter how much we are looking forward to the trip.
Whatever the cause, it could be worse. We could hate to travel but love to pack.
