We have all had that moment of excitement when our phone
lights up with a notification from the mail room- a package!!! Personally, my
mind starts running. Is it the shoes I ordered? Maybe a book? Or the best possibility- a care package from my mom. I might be a
little biased, but I believe my mom sends the most amazing and heart-warming
care packages ever. Even the idea of a care package from my mom makes me smile.
And this led me to wonder, what is so special about care packages? Why does a
simple box of trinkets and food embody so much emotion? Sure, her cute greeting
cards that are most commonly covered with cats wearing sweaters are delightful,
but there is something more going on. After hours, okay, maybe minutes, of contemplation
I realized it wasn't the cards or the festively decorated socks that make me
love care packages so much- it’s the food. The staples of my mom’s care
packages include home-made chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin bread (a favorite among my roommates). These sweet and delicious desserts are the foundation that
I grew up on. Every party or gathering in my childhood consisted of cookies
and there definitely was not a fall season without pumpkin bread. Receiving
these foods in a care package from home reminded me of all of the comforts that
I had as a childhood. Something as simple as a bite of pumpkin bread floods my
mind with memories of my home and my mother 2000 miles away.
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| The goodies from my mom's most recent care package. |
As I started to think
more about the affective nature of care packages it led me to think about the
other side. How does my mom feel when she sends a package? Does making a
package carry the same emotion? To find out I asked the care package goddess
herself, my mother. My mom told me that even though make a care package can
actually be quite a lot of work it is always worth it. In her words, “Being so
far away from you guys, sending a care package makes me feel a little bit
closer- more a part of your lives. We miss you guys. And it is always a nice
thing to hear that people like your cookies and want more.” As someone who was
always hosting a gaggle of my friends at our house and constantly making snacks
and hosting team dinners, it make sense that my mom would miss being a part of
my life in this way. Even though she can’t cook a dinner for me and my friends
any more, she can send cookies or bread instead and can still be a part of my
life. A care package isn't just a package of goodies, it is a link between my life in Massachusetts and my mom in Colorado.
I really connected to your post here and thought that this was such a cool topic to blog about. I'm from RI, and home for me is only about 45 minutes from Wheaton. However, this past spring semester I spent five months studying abroad in South Africa, and through that experience, was really able to feel the value of a care package. Reading your blog post was like going back in time and experiencing those same thoughts when I would receive care packages from my mom in SA. I agree that the food was what made the package, and my mom would send food items that were not available in SA, which made having them even more valuable to me. The most value though certainly came from the connection I was able to feel to my life back at home. The tastes and smells caused memories to surface and brought a sense of comfort, and also by sharing the food with my friends in SA, it was a way of giving them a tiny glimpse at pieces of my life in the States. Until reading your blog post I never thought of what sending a package did for my mom, but it made me think of how connected my mom is to me and my friends at Wheaton (since we're the family that lives close) and how the absence of that connection must have felt for her. I do believe that by sending me care packages, my mom was able to feel a new type of connection to me and my friends she'd never met from half way across the world.
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