Short informal first-person monologue by Katie McManus about the difficulty of packing and planning for a multi-destination trip to Delaware due to ADHD-related executive dysfunction. She lists many choices and contingencies (clothing, weather, activities, work needs, books, hair and beauty products, exercise gear, wellness items) and expresses anxiety about decisions under time pressure.
Chapters
So I'm driving to Delaware today and I am just sitting here on my bed and I want to leave in like 33 minutes. And I haven't packed yet. And I'm in major executive dysfunction around packing. I don't know why packing is so hard for me. It's just this task. Like I'm gonna have to make so many. I like, it's hard to pick what to wear in one day. Like now I have to pick what to wear for like a week. And, and I'm going to like three different places. I have to look at like three different weather scenarios and then I have to think about like, okay, well who am I staying with? What are we gon, are we gonna do anything fancy or is it gonna be chill? It's just a lot of work. And then of course, like I'm gonna be taking some work calls, like what kind of work stuff do I need to bring? And then of course, like I'm gonna be reading on there. So what do I want to bring? Do I want to just bring my Kindle or do I want to bring some actual real books? Am I gonna like get there and regret not bringing a book? Should I just bring all the books since I'm driving? And then of course, hair. Hello. This is the problem with driving places rather than flying is that like you can bring all the hair products, but here's what usually happens is I bring all the hair products and I never end up doing my hair cuz I just let it air dry. But like, what if this is the time? What if this is the one time that I get some place and I'm like, I want to do my hair and I don't have my products. Like what if I want to do some painting? Should I bring my art set too? And like if I want to work out, should I bring my yoga mat? And should I bring like some stretchy bands and my jump rope? And then if I bring all that stuff, should I bring my little muscle massager in case I get sore? And I'm like, what if there's bad juju when I get there? Should I bring like some of my crystals? Am I going to want to do like a mask? Should I bring some like facial stuff? And like what are the chances it's going to snow in Delaware in May? What about makeup? Should I bring makeup? Maybe I just make this like an ugly trip, like an unflattering trip. Maybe I just make sure that everything I have just matches my Tevas and wear those the whole time. Okay, I have 30 minutes left. I need to get to work. Does anyone else with ADHD go through this?
