As I sit here at the airport, awaiting yet another fun-filled adventure, I am reminded of why airlines place restrictions on baggage. Not just the kind you check in, but also the kind you get to carry aboard. "Your bag must fit these size limits in order to be taken on board".
Wouldn't it be great if these kinds of limitations could be applied to people and their emotional baggage?? "I'm sorry, I can't date you - I see you need a cart to lug around all your baggage and frankly I don't have that kind of room in my life to accommodate you."
If you think about the reasons why there are size limitations, it makes perfect sense. You're sharing space with many people and everyone must fit comfortably. There are also safety reasons - baggage can't be sticking out into the aisle or someone may trip over it and hurt themselves. Being limited to a reasonable sized carry-on is for the good of everyone.
As I dash off to catch my flight, I'll leave you with this thought...
I understand people have baggage (the emotional kind). Everyone has been cheated on at some point or has crossed paths with someone so manipulative that even they didn't know when they were telling the truth or lying. And that damages us a little bit each time something like that happens to us, so that eventually, we're all lugging around our own variety of baggage.
But just because you've accumulated baggage, doesn't mean you can't drop it off somewhere. Is it really necessary to hold onto that angst that you get when you hear a song that reminds you of your ex? No, its not. Is it necessary to obsess about the night you accidentally had a drunken make-out session with your boss... from 5 jobs ago ??? No, its not. Think how much more agile you could be if you weren't burdened by all this baggage. Juggling multiple pieces of large, unwieldy baggage is draining.
So give yourself permission to downsize. Yes, we all bear scars of relationships past, but if you strip away all the pain, anxiety and anger, you're left with the lesson you learned from that experience. And that lesson helped make you a stronger person. If you gather up all those nuggets of wisdom, you'll find they all fit neatly in a small carry-on sized bag.
While you can never completely get rid of your baggage, you can opt for a carry-on, rather than the jumbo-sized suitcase with wheels.
