It begins with a
suitcase, more precisely, the night when you pack it, because who could count
the long weeks of thinking about it?
While I was doing my suitcase for the first time, that night in February, I thought that I would return: I was only leaving for 5 months. I did not took too many memories, or many pictures, or books. Most of them are now in a box on an old closet and will probably never come back to me again.
I could barely stuff a few practical things that I would need for a longer period away from home. The most important selection criteria was: to be useful. I also took things that I knew that will cost me more at the destination, and I some food.
Taste, as I was to discover later, is one of the strongest links with what we call "home" is what quickly projects us back in time, during those moments of spiritual comfort, when people gather around the table and the life goes on simply and naturally. Taste is one of the strongest links with the culture of our home country. I saw people who have left and do not want even to think about coming back, but a taste from their past was enough to make them smile or shut a tear.
That night I packed mostly clothes, an enormous folder with documents, some cosmetics, cheese, some canned specialties, some CDs with music and movies. The most important of all the baggage was the laptop. It was in a bag which I was so afraid not be stolen during the long trip that I had taken it with me in the bus and carry it even to the toilet.
These were the most precious things I have put in my suitcase while I was wondering how my life was going to change.
Not much later I discovered that when you leave, you take with you an invisible baggage that you never get rid of and you unpack it anywhere you move. It contains tastes and odors, attitudes and fears that only those who are like you can understand. And it has the colors of your culture.
Wherever you go, whatever you do, no matter how hard you try to speak another language, to behave like a stranger, at home, underneath your bed there is this suitcase, which is only yours, waiting for you and, whenever you open it, it reminds you who you are. It contains thoughts and feelings from before leaving, longing, regrets and pride, achievements and dreams. And, with a little bit of luck, if you do some order in it, you can discover the best of you.
When I finally left my country for good, choosing the items in my suitcase was already different. I took books, old notebooks, traditionally painted Easter eggs and a few other things to remind me of home. I still remember that night. I was surrounded by what I was leaving behind, choosing what parts of life to stuff in the 25 kilograms. At the destination, many of them remained forgotten in various corners of my flat. Everything that reminds me of Romania lies in that invisible chest.
So I ask myself: What do we carry in our suitcase when we go (material or not)?
And what did your suitcase contain?
While I was doing my suitcase for the first time, that night in February, I thought that I would return: I was only leaving for 5 months. I did not took too many memories, or many pictures, or books. Most of them are now in a box on an old closet and will probably never come back to me again.
I could barely stuff a few practical things that I would need for a longer period away from home. The most important selection criteria was: to be useful. I also took things that I knew that will cost me more at the destination, and I some food.
Taste, as I was to discover later, is one of the strongest links with what we call "home" is what quickly projects us back in time, during those moments of spiritual comfort, when people gather around the table and the life goes on simply and naturally. Taste is one of the strongest links with the culture of our home country. I saw people who have left and do not want even to think about coming back, but a taste from their past was enough to make them smile or shut a tear.
That night I packed mostly clothes, an enormous folder with documents, some cosmetics, cheese, some canned specialties, some CDs with music and movies. The most important of all the baggage was the laptop. It was in a bag which I was so afraid not be stolen during the long trip that I had taken it with me in the bus and carry it even to the toilet.
These were the most precious things I have put in my suitcase while I was wondering how my life was going to change.
Not much later I discovered that when you leave, you take with you an invisible baggage that you never get rid of and you unpack it anywhere you move. It contains tastes and odors, attitudes and fears that only those who are like you can understand. And it has the colors of your culture.
Wherever you go, whatever you do, no matter how hard you try to speak another language, to behave like a stranger, at home, underneath your bed there is this suitcase, which is only yours, waiting for you and, whenever you open it, it reminds you who you are. It contains thoughts and feelings from before leaving, longing, regrets and pride, achievements and dreams. And, with a little bit of luck, if you do some order in it, you can discover the best of you.
When I finally left my country for good, choosing the items in my suitcase was already different. I took books, old notebooks, traditionally painted Easter eggs and a few other things to remind me of home. I still remember that night. I was surrounded by what I was leaving behind, choosing what parts of life to stuff in the 25 kilograms. At the destination, many of them remained forgotten in various corners of my flat. Everything that reminds me of Romania lies in that invisible chest.
So I ask myself: What do we carry in our suitcase when we go (material or not)?
And what did your suitcase contain?
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