For some packing for college is an exciting event, knowing that in the end of all the craziness is a reunion with friends who you haven’t seen in 3 months or a brand new experience of meeting new friends in new places. While for others its pure stress and is put off until the very last possible minute, in order to avoid a total mental breakdown. But regardless of whether you tend to find the whole experience exciting or stressful, chances are you find yourself on this roller coaster of the stages of packing for college.

1. Excitement

You slowly begin to pile up all your new purchases, and watch as your color scheme begins to come together. You found the perfect throw pillow to plop on top of your bed that accent light green in your comforter, and the cutest bulletin board/white board combo to display all the cute pictures you took this summer. But what is really beginning to fuel your excitement is the thought of seeing your friends or meeting your new besties.

2. Hesitation

You’ve compiled all the obvious must haves for the perfect dorm room or apartment, but then you start to think of all the things that are recommended or you think you might need. You start to question what you really need and what you don’t, and regardless of how many Pinterest articles you read about “What you really need in college” or “The number one things everyone forgets to pack” you still find yourself hesitant about all your purchases.

3. Stress

As your pile begins to grow, so does your stress. You’ve read every possible article you can find, talked to everyone you can possibly think of who could remind you of those things you’d forget yet you still feel as though somethings missing. And this may all be attributed to the fact that your list of ‘last minute items still continues to grow. It begins to feel like you’ll never be fully packed and move-in day seems to be coming at you like a freight train. And if all this worrying wasn’t enough, when you finally take a step back to look at large and growing pile, the thought that next comes to mind is how is this going to fit into my car? Do I need a rental, do I need U-Haul, heck do I just need a camper to live out of?

4. Exhaustion

The packing and stressing has finally caught up with you and you’ve found yourself at the point where you could really care less if all of you things get to school. You’ve spent so much time actually packing and strategically figuring out how you can shove it all into your car, while still managing to wedge you and your parents in. And finally when it’s all packed and ready to hit the road, you realize that it all has to be unpacked and perfectly placed in your room. Leaving the only thought in your head: “Well shit”.