For many college students, it already happened. For others, it's right around the corner. I'm talking about moving out of our dorm rooms for the summer. In my opinion, it's the worst thing ever, but also exciting because it means that summer break is here!
When I was a freshmen, moving out was literally the worst experience ever. When I first moved into my dorm room, all I had was two suitcases full of clothes that my mom and I had brought over on our plane ride from Germany. Then.. slowly and over time... good old American Walmart, Target, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond happened. I got everything I thought an American college student could possibly need, which I learned from YouTube of course. Additionally, I had acquired more clothes throughout the year because the possibilities here are endless, and even though my college is in this tiny town with only a few options, online shopping is always an option. I acquired all of this stuff without thinking about how I was going to store it in the summer when I would have to move out. After all, you don't live in the same dorm for all 4 years. I also had the problem that I had to ask 5 different people to store some of my stuff, because I was too embarrassed to have one person store everything (since it was so much!!). I am sure those of you who are from states that are further away and you have to fly home, you know the struggle that I'm talking about. One night, it was around 2am, and I was trying to get almost all the packing done before my final presentation the next day; I was walking down the stairs of my residence hall to get to the dumpster and tripped and fell down a full flight of stairs. This is the moment I remember most because I was so tired and so helpless and had just fallen down stairs, and I just kind of sat there on the floor for a while, contemplating my entire life. Sadly, I could not sit there forever. So I forced myself to get up and throw out the trash, go back up to my room and keep packing because if I didn't do it, no one would. A lot of the girls on my hall had parents come to help them pack and then help take their belongings home, but for me that was obviously not possible. In the end, however, I somehow managed to pack up and store everything with a number of different people. It made my finals week so much more stressful than it was already.
This year, I made sure that this disaster would not happen again. I donated a ton of clothes that I haven't worn in the two years that I have been at college, and donated other things that I haven't ever used either. I have a lot less stuff now (except for the office chair that I ordered from IKEA one night because I was frustrated about the dorm chairs) and also have an awesome roommate with a big empty basement who is willing to take all my stuff with her. Now, I just have to figure out what I'll be taking home with me since I'll be going to fly to London to study abroad in September and will need things there as well....
I wish freshmen Kat last year would have thought about whether she really needed that giant food dehydrator off amazon or the heavy, giant ninja blender when the smaller one would've been fine as well, because sophomore Kat still has all of this stuff. Hey, anyone want a free food dehydrator?
Long story short, please don't bring too much stuff to college and please don't go overboard with buying a bunch of extras that are very bulky, because you will have a problem at the end of the year like I did.
The struggle is real, but at least we are all (hopefully) going to be home soon!
Good luck!
