It's that time of year again: time to pack up your collection of clothes, notebooks, knickknacks, and discount furniture into your mom's minivan, and move into your new home for the school year. Moving into a college dorm is a harrowing process, however, and almost everyone goes through these stages during move-in day.
1. Denial
It doesn't matter that you have eighteen pairs of shoes, four bags of sweaters, twenty-two different scarves, and eight bed pillows that all, somehow, has to fit into one box. Deep down, in some rational part of your brain, you know it isn't true, and that you'll probably have to leave some of your belongings at home. But for now, you're still wistfully hopeful that you can take everything with you. It will all fit. You'll make it fit.
2. Anger
It doesn't fit. And on move-in day, you have to wait an hour in the line to get your dorm key. And the only elevator in the building is broken, so now you have to lug your giant TV stand up three flights of stairs. To top it all off, your little brother refuses to help carry your stuff, because he's too busy getting Great Balls from your campus's Pokestops. This is when the bickering starts, and you find yourself snapping at even your roommate's parents to get out of the way, this TV stand is heavy.
3. Bargaining
Okay, if I carry three bags of clothes on my arms, carry two boxes, and balance my laundry basket on my head, it should only take one more trip. You find yourself making these sorts of deals, even bribing the football players across the hall to help carry in some of your boxes. At this point, you'll do anything.
4. Depression
On your seventh trip up the stairs, it hits you: You're doomed. You'll never be able to get all these boxes into your cramped little room. And if you do, there's no way you'll be able unpack everything before you have to report to your first day of band camp, or in time to go to all the best Welcome Weekend activities. How could this happen to you? What's the point in going on? When will this madness end?
5. Acceptance
After ascending countless stairs, stumbling over beanbag chairs, and nearly dropping everything you own, you've done it. All of the boxes are finally inside your dorm, mostly unpacked. It's starting to look more like a living space, and less like the aftermath of a tornado.
As soon as the busy routine of school kicks in, it's unlikely that your room will ever be clean for longer than fourteen seconds.
But you can live with that. It might be an organized, chaotic mess, but it's yours.
