Here I sit. At gate C24 at the Toronto Airport. When I walked up to the WestJet check in desk, the lady asked how many bags I would like to check. I told her none. She looked at me, slightly surprised, then glanced down at my weathered, beaten up little suitcase and asked me if I was sure I wanted to carry it all the way to Vancouver. I told her, yes. That’s right, I carry my baggage with me.
This reminded me of something I’d seen on an online dating site a while back. (Ok, come on, don’t tell me that if you were single and in your mid-twenties that you wouldn’t sign up and give it a try!) Anyway, I was reading the profile of SinkNHook69. He was 29 years old, in “sales” and enjoyed cars, beers with friends, wakeboarding and hockey. He seemed pretty cool, especially with a profile name like SinkNHook69, so naturally I kept reading. Everything seemed normalish (what really is normal?!) until I got to the very end and it said in big uppercase letters:
"NO BAGGAGE PLEASE"
I instantly thought to myself…well, I definitely don’t have any baggage! I’m a solid chick. I’ve got a lot going for me...great job, great friends and family...totally cool and pretty funny too! But as I moved along to the next prospect on the list, I started thinking about this word “baggage”. What did he mean by baggage? Did this refer to emotional baggage? Family baggage? Financial baggage? Ex-relationship baggage?
Whatever this baggage SinkNHook69 meant was, I figure that by the age of 20 everyone in this entire world carries some kind of baggage with them. Anyone who has ever had their feelings hurt, gotten into a fight with their brother, sister or parents, needed a friend, been in trouble, lost a loved one, been dumped, dumped someone, been misunderstood or not heard. Anyone and everyone has some baggage.
Now I’m still sitting in the terminal. I’m looking around me at all the people with all their different bags. Of course, bags comes in all different shapes and sizes. Some people have really old suitcases, that are heavy and awkward to carry around but they would never consider getting rid of them. They have had them for so long, they don’t know any better and don’t even care to know what life would be like without that trusty old suitcase.
Some people are over-packers. They take everything with them, so they have many suitcases which makes getting around a real burden. You see these people hooking rolling suitcases together, creating a trains of baggage...one just latching on to the other... They also have their hands and shoulders weighed down with even more bags and are probably wearing a backpack. These people just don’t know how to leave things behind.
There are also people who prefer not to carry anything with them. They want people to think how carefree they are “Look at me, I’m not bringing anything at all!” But these people still have baggage, they just put it all into a big crate, nail it shut and try to forget about it. They can go anywhere in the world they wish, but when they least expect it or at the most inconvenient times, that big crate will show up.
There are also those people like me. Minimize the baggage, leave behind what isn’t necessary and try to travel light. It just makes life a little easier. And, if you have to carry something around you may as well make it cool and have a good story behind it. My trusty little neon green carry-on is not only loaded with stories but when people see it, they ask me about it. They are curious to know what stories are behind it.
I’m not ashamed of any of my baggage. It has been with me and will continue to be with me throughout my life. Sometimes it changes, I may leave something behind in one place and find myself with new things in another place. I don’t go around rolling my baggage around everywhere, flaunting it for everyone to see, but I also don’t feel the need to hide it.
What kind of baggage do you carry?
Have you ever thought about making a conscious effort to travel lighter? I’m on the plane now. Time to turn off the computer. Everyone has politely stowed their baggage away for the next few hours… some overhead, some under the seats. And that’s where it will stay for the rest of the flight.
