Can we talk about baggage, yours, mine and ours? // PEDA.2
“People are here because they’ve got baggage. I’m talking curbside-check-in, pay-the-fine-’cause-it’s-over-fifty-pounds kind of baggage.”
– Lauren Kate
So guys,
For so long, I’ve sort of thought that only people with bad or traumatising pasts had baggage and everyone else was skipping along bag free, daisy smelling and all. Later in life however, I’ve learned that baggage starts the day you are born, you carry a subconscious suitcase of all that makes you, you. The good, the bad, the small and the gigantic.
There was something calming about realizing this, accepting this, because it made the world less intimidating. It made having baggage in the trunk not such a mad thing.
The thing about baggage however, is that some people hide it; some hide it from others and some from themselves without even being aware of it. Some carry it in a ripped and worn out bag and so it keeps falling out all over the place and there are constantly tripping over it and never able to move on.
Some pack it away in pretty cases, the kind that smell like lavender and cupcakes, making everyone around them feel calm because their baggage is neatly packed away.
Because sometimes we get afraid when someone we care about has more baggage than we think we can carry. Some feel that they need to force their baggage on other people, never learning to love, to trust or move on because they have their heads so deep down their baggage. They sit down in the middle of a busy and moving life, arms rolled up, with magnifying classes and handy gloves, searching for reasons and understandings that were never meant to be found. Reasons that were never even packed, like a mad scientist.
My baggage and your baggage –
I always keep wondering whether two people with the same bad and heavy kind of baggage ever stand a chance? It hits my head like two blind souls trying to describe and understand the colours of the sky. I´ve weirdly always felt like in order for me to have a successful relationship, I needed someone who wasn´t lacking in what I was lacking and who I could also uplift with the few tools and knowledge I had collected in places and situation he had never been in. It´s funny because when you think about friendships and such, we are most attracted to the people who share the same baggage as us. It makes room for solitude.
When I was younger and my sis and I were sent out to buy some groceries, I remember us sharing the handles, and sometimes, as I grew taller than her, I kept feeling as though the heavier my share of the weight got, a misbalance. I would guess that the ultimate goal in life is to find people who can see all your baggage, and still sit comfortably aside you, even if it´s not covered with a case coated with flower print and there are no tiny lavender scent bags, just everything you are. And when it get´s heavy, they share the handles with you and if they are stronger and taller, they give you a chance to feel lighter than you have before and you can do the same for them too.
Sir, did you pack your own suitcase?
It is critical for your own sake and the people around you that you never ignore or miss up on the chance to getting to understand what it is that you are really carrying, no matter how ugly it is. You need to understand how heavy or valuable certain pieces are. If you are lucky enough to find someone and they want to help you carry all your bits and pieces, it´s misleading for them to think your baggage was full of paper, like you said, when really it´s all cement blocks- they WILL feel the difference. Therefore, you need to understand you and what shapes the pieces you carry before anyone else can be expected to understand or relate- and it´s not always as scary as it feels. After all, it´s all just baggage,
Be good to your soul and don´t be a stranger
