Sorry Steve Jobs, I left my iPod at home.

Last December, I packed my car, near to bursting, with plants, tapestries, boxes of clothes, furniture, kitchen supplies, funky lights, posters, odds and ends - my entire life as it had been at 408 W. Tucson Avenue in Flagstaff, Arizona. There was the bamboo plant that I had miraculously managed to keep alive since 2006, purchased upon my arrival at N.A.U., the photos of adventures that I had printed in sepia and 'collage-d' my walls with, the coveted Goodwill sweater collection, thrift store treasures, sequin 80's tops - folded and placed in cardboard boxes, costume supplies, wigs, unfinished paintings, my bead box, my "Easter egg bike" (yet to be reassembled after Tommy painted it Easter egg blue), arts and crafts, and countless other pieces of memorabilia - memories encapsulated in my Camry as I journeyed towards the next phase in my life.

I would trade the massively unnecessary accumulation of belongings for what could fit into this:

A backpack. Though a giant backpack at that, this bag would become the holder of my life - quite a downsize from a car's worth of stuff. What do you take halfway around the world? Well, I can summarize it pretty easily - next to nothing.

What did I really bring? To be honest, although not what all people would stuff their bag with first, half of my bag was reserved for climbing gear....

 

 ...all because I would be on the beach climbing rocks like this.

Oh, I did bring clothes too. My clothing collection was reduced to 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of shorts, 1 purse, 1 rain shell/jacket, 5 beach dresses, 1 bikini, 3 shirts, and 1 sweatshirt. I brought 3 pairs of shoes (without counting rock shoes) - 1 pair of sandals, 1 pair of running shoes, and 1 pair of flip flops. As for toiletries, I brought only the basics (shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc.) and a small make up bag. Electronics: computer and camera. What? No iPod!? Yup, that's right - I purposefully forgot my iPod. I hope Steve Jobs doesn't haunt me over that one.......too soon? (I basically just forgot that I was moving to Thailand, instead of traveling through, but honestly, while I has traveling in Europe for a couple of months in 2009, I hadn't used my iPod once. On top of that, I sort of hated on folks who walked around Paris with headphones in, Skyping, answering international texts, and jamming B-Spears instead of taking in atmosphere, so I left it behind. I also almost left my computer too, but figured it could help me with lesson planning and allow me to maintain regular contact with those back home.)

I brought 3 books, a small bag of hemp, beads (fuckin' hippies), a knife, some first aid stuff, an outlet converter, a journal, and that's about it. If I forgot to include anything here, it was probably something the size of Carmex.

I brought a backpack - half climbing stuff, half other stuff and at first I would think to myself, "Oh, it would be awesome if I had this shirt or that skirt", but none of it really mattered at the end of the day. Now, I just get rid of stuff as quickly as I acquire it - thinking to myself about the time that I only had what would fit into that single bag. 

It's funny, because as I was leaving from the train station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my mom mentioned to me that my uncle would be getting married in Australia in October, so if I was still around Thailand, I should think about going. The time of my uncle's wedding was almost a year ago then, and I laughed it off as my mom over planning and I, without any intention of being gone that long. 

It has now been that  long. It is that time in October and I leave for the wedding in Australia on Friday. I'm going to see my mom for the first time in almost a year and I have no intention of returning to America just yet. I look at my backpack in the corner of my room, neglected since I arrived, and I feel the itch for adventure, but the surprising thing is that when my mom asked if there was anything that I needed from back home, a year ago, while it would have been a laundry list of little things, today, I asked for new climbing shoes and left it at that.