Two weeks to go!!
Over the weekend, with almost military-grade precision I was packed & ready to go. I feel I must clarify this to give you an idea of the degree of difficulty this involved, and to give you an indication of how much thanks I once again owe to the very-important-people in my life!!
I have inherited a lot of things from my mum (I know, this seems like a tangent but don't worry it will very shortly become relevant). For example I have her nose, her hair, even the less exciting things like the Asthma & bad eyesight - but one of the ways I think I most strongly resemble her is our minor "pack-rat" tendencies. Don't get me wrong this doesn't bother me at all (seriously I'm much more upset about the nose ;) - LOVE YOU MUM!!) but it does cause a few issues when one is moving to the other side of the world & standing considering their bedroom full of crap. I say "crap" of course in the nicest possible sense, after all it is all my stuff to begin with. Bestest friend over the weekend was slightly less PC (& slightly more truthful) & kept referring to it as piles of SH-- you get the point.
One of the major hurdles that was left between me & leaving has been this room. I couldn't in good conscience leave all of that stuff as it was, I'm not planning on being home for a long time & when I am its pretty likely that dealing with the contents of my former room will be fairly low on the agenda. I also think that the idea of it had been holding me back - it seems so final - of course I know that regardless of whether or not I clean the room this last countdown is on - only two weeks to go now - but holding back on doing it was helping me cling to the comforting idea that it wasn't really real. Of course other people might also add that it was just because I didn't want to have to tidy it all up, in all fairness that was probably a big influence as well!!
Now it's about this time, while standing looking down at the looming piles of evidence of your own pack-"rattiness" that you want to be able to look to either side of you & see your best friend & your ten-year-old little sister. Or at least I do. Best friend, going through the far more normal-than-me experiences of moving house for her international exchange in High school & University & work has oodles of experience with moving. She was confident that we would make it through & achieve what seemed to me an impossible task and, as only someone with her inspiring determination (and ability to put up with or ignore my childish whining) she of course succeeded.
I think, as sometimes happens with me, that I may be slightly overemphasising the extent of my own mess - for example you won't see me on the next series of "Hoarders" but we did - "we" of course referring to my two, sometimes three helpers - managed to sort, throw & pack me almost completely in the space of two days. This included four large size rubbish bags of stuff-I-really-shouldn't-have-kept-all-these-years, five stacks of books to donate, six storage boxes of stuff-that-even-though-I'm-leaving-the-country-I-just-cant-live-without-and-so-must-be-stored-indefinitely & my medium size suitcase & hopefully-not-oversize carry-on backpack. Really I'm tired just writing that!
After the packing was all done, bestest friend had left back to Auckland & the family was downstairs I came back up to my room to look around. It is still surprising to me, especially given that I have written several times now about how "it is all finally starting to seem real" that its not until that moment it finally sunk in. This is what my old life looks like if I'm not in it. Crazy to think, given all the times that Ive been away on trips, even a 4 month stay a couple of years ago, that this is it. Life is going to go on without me - the 10 year old is moving into my room (so it probably won't be this tidy for long!) & I'm really leaving. IN.. FOURTEEN.. DAYS!! I still don't think I'm ready - as it gets closer I get more apprehensive, but I'm excited as well - this is going to be the biggest challenge & stretch of myself that I could have possibly chosen. I hope that I will succeed, but I know now - especially given the evidence of this past weekend that I can't do it alone.
So thank you Emma, Stephy & Mum - for getting me packed, even if, especially if I complained about some (or most) of it!!! I love y'all very very much.
