Baggage

We all have it.

I recently saw an episode of How I Met Your Mother called "The Wedding Bride". In it they use the device of showing each person dragging along a rolling suitcase with their particular hang-up emblazoned on the side. Phrases like "Still in Love with Ex", "Lives with Mother", "Still thinks his band will make it", and "Cubs fan" are there for all to see.

Ted's set of baggage gets premier treatment in movie form. He was left at the alter by Stella, and the man who she left him for makes a movie about it (with Ted as the villian/chump). Ted eventually confesses his "Left at the alter" baggage to the woman he is dating. The first and last scenes are below.



We all have baggage that we carry around, though of course it is not so obviously displayed. I have been going through my fallow and recovery period for a while now, and I have been trying to work out all the things I think went wrong. I am hoping that in working on things here and elsewhere over the past year, my particular set of luggage will be smaller. But of course it is still there.

Part of bringing baggage to any new relationship is all the mistakes you made in the past. Every relationship is different, and there is no comparing one person to another, but you can become a little sensitive to patterns and behaviors you've seen before. I'd like to think that I have learned something through all this, and I don't want to make the same mistakes again. I want to make all new mistakes this time.

I think I have done all I can by myself to work things out, and I won't know if I've made any real changes until I am in another relationship. I still have things to work on, but I think I am ready to turn the page and move onto the next chapter. It is going to be great.