How did I do it?

Vancouver, BC

Ten months ago I arrived in this city, fresh to the west coast, my life consisting of four bags and the promise of new beginnings. Well I did begin–begin to plan to leave again. Now as I try to repack my life into four bags, I realize that I did expand into my surroundings. I am at least going to take five bags this time, and they will likely be bigger bags, most of them. Obviously the camera bag is much bigger as I have grown my gear exponentially since leaving Bermuda last. I do have bags for that to carry on. Although I continue to enjoy collecting bigger and better lenses, I must be wary not to get more than I can carry onto an airplane when I need to completely relocate myself.

But as I spend some time tonight trying to do a bit of pre-packing, I just don’t know how I managed to get all of my stuff into those bags. I know I have purchased a number of items and so I think I’m going to need to purge the old and weak articles to charity shops. It is a good exercise. I notices today that I have some old t-shirts which I don’t wear but seem to carry for sentimental reasons. I think it is time I said goodbye to those (after preserving their memory in photos).

The worst isn’t the clothes, but the host of random items I have sitting on top of my table and dresser. The dresser is particularly bad, there is actually a defined mound that is growing in the centre. My landlady is showing my apartment tomorrow at 11:30, so I have a hard deadline in terms of when I need to have this place looking presentable. It definitely isn’t there yet, but it is way better than when I got home from work. At some point tomorrow morning I will just shove everything into my storage room and shut that door. Until then I continue to pack and clean and sort. Cheers.

Written by Colin Bate