These are the stages you will go through when packing to live and study in a different city.

Packing for university can be a really big problem. It is so hard to figure out what you want to take and what you don’t want to take and what you will need and what you won’t. Through this comes the five stages of packing for university, which ironically enough are the same five stages of grieving. Here are the five stages broken down so that they are easily understood.

Denial

In the denial stage you will not accept that you cannot bring absolutely everything that you own to university. You just won’t take that. You have to be able to bring everything including those shoes you only wore once and they hurt your feet so bad you went barefoot.

Anger

Anger comes when you realize that this is just no way that you can bring everything. You were so sure that you could and now that illusion is ruined and you need to start throwing things out of your suitcase around the room.

Bargaining

This is an interesting stage. This involves trying to trick yourself into bringing everything. You think that maybe if you leave behind one pair of socks that you can bring those other five pair of pants that you (think you) need.

Sadness

This is a hard one, you will find that it starts to get a little sad when it hits you that you are really leaving and that you cannot bring absolutely everything that you had intended on bringing to college and that can be kind of a hard realization. Things will start looking up very soon!

Acceptance

Now we come to the last stage, acceptance. This step is so important because it is when you realize that no, you can’t fit all of those hoodies in your suitcase, but yes, it will be okay. You have learned to part with some of the things that you know you will not wear, and packed only the  absolute essentials. Maybe there is even a little bit of room left in your suitcase. You love all of the things you are bringing and you can’t wait to start university on the right foot. But the important thing to remember is, that once you get to college, there is always a little time left over to go shopping.