Packing woes and lows

Last Friday marked a turning point for me. Sometimes something in your life happens that is so horrible and strenuous, it changes you inside. Some event that makes you take a long look inside your own psyche and scream the question, "What could I have ever done to prevent this?"\nWhat event could make me feel so strongly that I would want to change the very essence of myself and how I live? What could make life so miserable it would make an eternal impact?\nI can only think of one event -- the complete and utter horror of having to pack all the crap I had amassed during the school year and put it into a bright yellow sport utility vehicle. \nTo most people, packing is an inconvenience. My packing experience can be related more easily to either Chinese water torture or being pulled apart on the rack. The combination of the sweltering heat of the third floor, the sheer quantity of things to pack and the embarrassment of spending hours more than anyone else compared to the knowledge that any and all of the punishment I was enduring was my own fault.\nAfter the struggle, I found packing could be defined by very clear and separable stages in which the packer goes through differing amounts of distress. \nStage one: the easiest because the brain cannot accurately calculate the amount of stuff that can be crammed into a room. The packer begins by planning the multiple strategies, like "Pack Larger Stuff First" or "Group Stuff Together."\nThese are noble goals. Great ideas. Sadly, they are frustrating to maintain and very rarely continue.\nStage two: the packer begins to realize what a miserable state of affairs he or she is in. After working for an hour or so, the packer realizes he or she has packed approximately one-sixth of the things to be packed and it has already taken up four times the predicted effort, three times the predicted boxes and at least five times the predicted time. At this stage, the packing goals begin to become fuzzy as frustration is elevated. \nFor me, I started to have questions appearing in my mind. \n"It's possible that I didn't really need to buy all 108 packages of Ramen noodles before I came down here. Especially since I have 78 left …"\n"Was it really necessary to have your power drill, tool set, hammer and soldering iron here?" \n"Maybe I didn't need to bring down all three Halloween costumes. There will probably never be an occasion where I have to dress up like a knight, paratrooper AND Batman ..."\nStage three: hope begins to dwindle. The packer begins to become too depressed to see an end but simply too scared to stop packing. Irrational thoughts flow through the mind and packing becomes more and more erratic. Silverware is packed in with dirty laundry. Books are put into boxes with water bottles. \nDoes it matter? \nNope -- not when the packer becomes so frantic boxes are simply filled to the brim and thrown out of sight as quickly as possible.\nI'm happy to inform you I did get packed and I did make it home, but the horror of that experience still rings in my mind a week later. Personally, I think we need to raise more awareness of my plight -- the rare "I Have Too Much Stuff" Disorder.\nMaybe it's America's fault, turning me into a materialistic crap-collecting machine, but I know something has got to change. Not for the environment, not for third world countries. But for me.\nI simply can't carry it all.