I'm a psychology minor, so I took a course this year that went over the lifespan. When we got to the portion that focused on the end of life, I was told about Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief, which is applied when a person is either dying or someone around them has died in an effort for them to cope with what is happening. It wasn't a huge part of the class, but I thought it was interesting.
Then the class ended, and school ended, and I had to move out. I hate moving out, or more specifically, I just hate packing. A lot. I'm a sentimental person who holds onto a lot of fairly useless things I'll probably never use because hey, I might need it one day! Or at least, that's what I tell myself, and then it stays stuffed under my bed with everything else. So yeah, I hate packing, so much so it made me think of death (in a joking way, of course. Morbid humor is something I go to a lot), which made me realize: you can apply those five stages from Kubler-Ross' theory to packing! so here they are: the five stages of packing.
Stage 1: Denial
Packing? Ha! It's like, a week before we move out, I have plenty of time! I don't even have that much stuff, right? How much could I possibly have brought with me to this tiny dorm room? I bet it takes me a couple of hours, tops, to get everything together and into my car. My car should be big enough to fit everything, right? Who needs to plan for that? Everything is going to be just fine! There's no reason to worry! Right?
Stage 2: Anger
Why did i let it get to this point? There's so much stuff, what was I possibly thinking. There's no way I have enough time to get everything together. I still have to study for exams too, and try to hang out with friends before the summer. I should have known better! Why do I even have this many clothes? Who needs 10 pairs of shoes? I only have two feet! I should just sell everything since I'm so stupid and didn't give myself nearly enough time to pack!
Stage 3: Bargaining
Hey buddy! How are exams going? Good? Awesome! So you've got time to help me out yeah? With packing? Listen, I got some heavy things that I could really use some help with. The fridge is not going down three flights of stairs with just me caring it, so why not help your friend out, huh? What’s that look for? Why are you walking away? Come on! Help me carry my fridge out! I'll buy you coffee!
Stage 4: Depression
This is it. I'm never getting out. I will be stuck in this room forever, under a pile of boxes and my things thrown everywhere. Maybe they'll eventually find my bones when they plow through all my things. I knew I shouldn't have gone to all those events, they were throwing free things at me when I was already carrying three free shirts and a bag full of free pens. I guess this is how it ends, buried under my material possessions. Goodbye, cruel college, all you did was take my money.
Stage 5: Acceptance
No. Not like this. I'm moving out, dang it. Give me those boxes! Get me some trash bags! Stuff is getting packed! Think a whole room can't fit into my compact car! You're wrong! I'm standing here playing real life Tetris with my things, making them fit! Here some glass smashing? Too bad! I'll deal with that later! It's all about making it home! Can't see out the back window because you've got things packed too high! Oh well, who needs road safety (jk I better make sure I can see that would be really bad)! We aren't moving fast enough, throw stuff out the window to the parking lot! I'm going home!
And then the cycle repeats every single time I have to move in somewhere or move out of somewhere. It's not pretty.
