unnecessary things I pack for school

Packing takes me a long time. This is a reality caused by several factors, the main ones being (a) I have a lot of stuff, (b) I know that I don't actually need all of this stuff but want it anyway, and (c) what stuff I bring to school must be packed to maximize space perfectly.

What are these things, you ask, that you do not actually need but insist on bringing regardless?

1. 12 pairs of purple socks.
   Most of the socks I own are purple, and I just can't bear to leave more than two pairs behind at home. Wearing purple socks just brings so much joy to me and the people around me. At least, that's what I like to think.
2. More weird hippie skirts than pants.
   Skirts are just so much more interesting than pants. So what if I could only bring myself to part with one of my five paisley skirts? 
3. Pleasure reading.
   What kind of literature major wastes time reading books that aren't even for class? This kind. This semester's list includes Glory, by Nabokov, and The Cost of Discipleship, by Bonhoeffer.
4. Lending reading.
   Last year I had a fully operational C. S. Lewis Lending Library in my dorm room. It got quite a bit of use. This year I (alas!) cannot fit the whole collection, but I'm bringing a couple of those along with some other books I've found myself lending to lots of people (Walking on Water, by Madeleine L'Engle; Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxes; Desiring God, by John Piper).
5. All of my class textbooks.
   'But you need those, Katie!' Yes, and because I'm an idiot, I had them shipped to home instead of straight to school. 'Great way to add 20 pounds to the load, Katie.' Sorry.
6. My unicorn-rainbow-hearts-stars beach towel. With my name on it. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
7. Like three journals.
   I'm afraid that I'll run out of pages in the middle of a crisis. Woe. Also, what if I come up with a new category of thought that needs journalling? I can't put life analyses in my quote journal, and I certainly can't make to-do lists in my prayer journal.
8. Acrylic paints and chalk pastels.
   Sometimes even the most obnoxiously task-oriented among us need to take a rainy Sunday afternoon to make art.
9. A jar of Nutella.
   Because, Nutella.
10. Approximately 23 hairbows.
    Friends, I'm a little obsessed with hairbows, and I have a whole box full of them. I can justify it because I've never bought a hairbow in my life: they have all been hand-me-downs from friends who grew up in the nineties and realize just how ridiculous they are OR bows that I have had since I was 4. (Yes, I have been wearing the same hairstyle for as long as I've had hair to style.) Proof:

Me, circa sometime-in-the-nineties, wearing a fabulous white hairbow.