Packing for your freshman year of college may have felt something like trying to pack up the last 18 years of your life into suitcases, boxes, and totes that are somehow going to magically fit into your Ford Focus or Toyota Camry you got on your sixteenth birthday. What you probably didn’t know was that only half of what you packed would probably be used throughout the school year.

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Most seniors, juniors, and sophomores will admit that much of their baggage from freshman year has been dropped metaphorically and maybe even literally.

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Margo McCullough, a senior finance and accounting major, shares, “I don’t even know if I wore half the clothes and shoes I brought my freshman year.”

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All the boxes of clothes packed to clean out your closet at home probably are not worth all of the time packing and unpacking. Soon you will be parading around campus in the same few t-shirts, pants, sweatshirts, and maybe the occasional dress or khakis and button up. Caution yourself to not pack that blue tutu you wore for spirit week in high school with the possibility you could maybe just maybe have to wear it to some themed party, because chances are the blue tutu has seen better days.

Another thing that may haunt some of you from your glory days of high school are relationships.

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“I strung out my relationship all through freshman year even though I knew it was time to break it off. It was actually really stressful,” explains Greg Bayne, a junior computer science major.

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There’s a chance that some of you might be feeling like Greg. Sometimes the best thing for a long distance relationship is to end it and let yourself enjoy the newness of life on your own. Don’t ignore the new world that is in front of you for the one you left behind. But on the other hand, some are meant to sustain the college distance. That person that you already have to lean onto might be what helps you to get through college. So hold onto them as long as you can if that’s the truth. Ask yourself how worth it your current situation currently is and will be in the future.

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Now that you are in college there is a chance that you are going to do adult things that you may have never done before like iron your clothes, save leftovers, and vacuum. But just because you are flying the nest does not mean you magically need “adult things”. The cheap iron you bought just in case your clothes wrinkle may never be plugged in. A little wrinkle in your shirt is probably not stopping you from catching a couple more minutes of sleep.

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The starter pack of Tupperware you thought was going to be put to use will sit lonely in the cupboard of your dorm because, newsflash, there are no leftovers in a small dorm. Buying food on campus basically eliminates the lovely mornings of having cold leftovers for breakfast, sadly. The extra lamps, vacuum, school supplies, and other odds and ends you bought may rarely, if ever, be used. College life is really quite simple. You go to class, study (hopefully), workout maybe, and hang out with friends. This time of your life will probably be the simplest you have lived in your life, so enjoy it.

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Next year while packing for school remember to leave the extra clothes and to bring your favorites, leave unnecessary relationships behind to enjoy the new fish in your sea and focus on yourself, and remember just because you’re out of the house for a couple months does not mean you’re all grown up. Keep it simple this year. Rather than bringing everything you think you need, let the college experience give you some intangible things like friends, memories, education, and independence.