A Guide to Packing Up Your Dorm

Written by: Lubaina Kapasi. Graphics by: Aarya Mahapadra.

Less than three weeks to go, and we’re preparing to pack up our dorms and store everything for three months or more.

But today I realize folding clothes, bubble-wrapping a lamp and sealing cardboard boxes with red tape is not going to be as easy as I thought. Why?

I entered Room 303, Bumble at the Hive, with two suitcases and a cabin bag. A girl who for 18 years had only known a pampered, privileged, settled life. I spent my first night in utter fright, thinking about how I didn’t have enough space for my 12 pairs of PJ sets and 24 different curly hair products.

Today, I look back at her and all I can do is smile.

And if someone told her that nine months down the line she would still only be wearing those 12 PJ sets and using just one leave-in conditioner, she’d smile even wider.

This is why packing up is not going to be easy, because I know, within the gaps of my folded clothes and the spaces between the bubble-wrapped lamp, I am packing so much more.

I am packing up my $1 plastic cup, filled with my first sense of independence;
my 90-by-200 centimeter fitted bed sheet, wrinkled with self-sufficiency;
my desk mirror, smudged with lipstick and tons of confidence;
my two storage bins, stuffed with organization, art supplies and a tub of Tide Pods;
my shower caddy, with minimal toiletries, dripping with consistency;
my plastic drawer organizers, filled with instant tea packets, emergency meds my mom packed in tiny Ziplocs, and tons of clarity;
my one thick winter coat, in the pockets of which you’ll find handfuls of resilience;
my Blick portfolio bag, saturated with motivation and stained with gouache;
and my laundry bag, loaded with the sheets I changed yesterday, the sweatpants I wear almost every day, and the responsibility of myself I take every second.

I strongly believe that “when one door shuts, another opens,” but what happens when you have to shut the door yourself? It’s difficult. I feel you.

In the last week of May, when you’re dreading shutting your dorm room door, remember: That room taught you independence, time management, responsibility, communication, adaptability, financial management, coping with homesickness and stress, living with less, collaboration, flexibility and patience.

You might not feel it or know it, but in these nine months, your dorm has equipped and prepared you with 13 priceless capabilities — to live, survive and thrive wherever you go next.

This is my guide to packing up your dorm: Believe that your dorm always wanted you to outgrow its walls.

Now, you’re able to make cement walls instead of thin paper ones, buy furniture without wheels underneath it and own a fridge just a little taller than you.

Your dorm has guided you to create permanence through the course of impermanence.

Stand tall. Smile wide. Be on time. Say goodbye, but remember: Your four walls are now ready to be that space and place of lessons and learning for a new 18-year-old girl, eager for growth, unaware of how much she’s going to change, how much she’s going to grow.

Before leaving home last August, I made a promise to my family I was leaving behind, that as I start this journey, I would be mindful, alert, kind, focused, strong and, most of all, courageous.

I said so while being completely unsure how I would keep that promise.

Now I know: In every room I walk into, I carry that promise as a part of me.

So while we may fold our clothes and bubble-wrap our lamps, pack them in cardboard boxes and seal them with red tape, there are a billion things you’ll carry with you always, because you were able to say hi and bye to a room once.

P.S.
I believe living in a dorm, above all, teaches you things nothing and no one else ever could. Since the title of this piece says “guide,” here’s the only part that actually functions like one, I promise not to lecture-dump.

There are enough YouTube videos out there that will teach you how to pack your stuff better than I ever could. But I will say this:

In the next two weeks, make sure you’ve eaten all your snacks, sold everything you won’t need for the next academic year, bought your packing materials, booked a storage unit if you need one and taken a good look at how much stuff you have, and how much time you’ll need to pack it, since it all clashes with finals.

Sending hugs and lots of strength.