What’s in a Name?

I can’t let go. For as long as I can remember, I have had deep attachments to people, things, places, memories and even some meals. I’m thirty now but my closest friends are a small group of great girls who came into my life between the 4th and 12th grades. I still have the Walkman that I stopped using 15 years ago and a skirt I bought 13 years ago. I have ‘memory bags’ and favorite mugs and I stuck with my challenging and grueling first job for 5 years.

I can’t let go.

I love finding an old souvenir from a Himalayan trek in 2002 or a friendship day card my best friend gave me when we were 16 and the rush of warm, fuzzy memories that they bring. Memories of beautiful places and laughing till my stomach hurt, pyjama parties and secret crushes. When those memories come flooding back, the memories of an uneasy childhood, insecurity, fear and hurt disappear and make me feel loved and lucky. Maybe that’s why I cling to them, why I hoard seemingly random odds and ends and why every time I feel truly happy, I want to save a little piece of it to relive it again.

Now that I am getting opportunities in my life to travel around the world, this often leads to frustrating packing days and ridiculous amounts of money in fees for excess baggage.

When I sat down to think of names for this blog, I hunted for words that would capture my essence, especially in the context of travel (since this is largely intended to be a travel blog). I considered lofty travel words like ‘resfeber’ and ‘destinesia’ but they all just rang insincere. Then I pictured myself as I trudged through airports. Always leaving with a bag more than I landed with and often wearing multiple layers of clothes to save precious suitcase space. Thus, the name ‘excess baggage’.

Not just as a traveler, people close to me who have seen the stress meltdowns and anxiety attacks, the doubts and the tempers can vouch for the fact that I have a lot of excess baggage as a person too. I am a lot like my suitcases that look like they’ll burst but can always squeeze in a little bit more. So for those of you have taken the time to read this post and others on the blog, I hope this gives you a rough sketch of me. Now before my rambling exceeds your attention span, welcome and thanks for reading!