Emily and The Travel Jar Chapter 1
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A Story About Confidence, Travel, and Packing Smarter
Last updated: March 2026
The Girl Who Thought She Was Different
Emily stood in front of the bathroom mirror, tilting her head slightly as she studied her reflection.
She had tried three different outfits already.
None of them felt right.
Emily thought she wasn’t like the other girls… which meant she was exactly like the other girls.
But in this story, that isn’t a bad thing.
Like most people in life, we each have to learn our lessons ourselves. The only real hope is that we learn them a little faster than the average person.
Emily tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and leaned a little closer to the mirror.
Everything about her was average.
Not tall.
Not short.
Not thick or thin.
The kind of face you could walk past in a crowded hallway and forget five minutes later.
And maybe that was exactly why she tried so hard to stand out.
It wasn’t about impressing other people.
She just wanted to feel like she was someone.
Like she had an identity in a world full of strangers.
The Girl Nobody Confused
Confidence never came easily to Emily.
In grade school teachers and classmates constantly mixed her up with other girls.
“Emma?”
“Ella?”
“Ava?”
Sometimes even “Hannah.”
Emily would quietly raise her hand.
“No… it’s Emily.”
But there was one girl nobody ever confused with anyone else.
Her name was Xanthe.
Xanthe was short, but her personality seemed to fill every room she walked into.
If two kids were arguing on the playground, Xanthe would walk straight into the middle of it. Within minutes they would both leave laughing.
When a new student arrived, Xanthe was usually the first person sitting beside them at lunch.
And somehow she managed all of this without making anyone else feel small.
Emily once watched Xanthe help a girl pick up books she had dropped in the hallway. Within minutes they were laughing like they had known each other forever.
Sometimes Emily wondered if it was something Xanthe said.
Other times it felt like it was simply her presence.
It was a good thing Xanthe had no desire to be the queen bee of the class. Emily was fairly certain half the school would have followed her if she tried.
But Xanthe never seemed interested in that.
She was confident without needing an audience.
One afternoon Emily stood in front of her mirror and straightened her shoulders.
Was it the way Xanthe dressed?
Emily tried copying one of her outfits the next day.
It didn’t feel right.
Was it the way she spoke?
Emily tried speaking up more in class once.
Her voice sounded strange even to her own ears.
She leaned closer to the mirror and sighed.
No.
It was something else.
Something in the way Xanthe carried herself.
Like she had nothing to prove.
Growing Up and Playing It Safe
Years passed.
Emily graduated college with a business degree and a future that looked responsible, sensible, and entirely reasonable.
But as she zipped up her suitcase after graduation and moved back home, she felt something she couldn’t quite name.
Uncertainty.
In college she tried reinventing herself several times.
One semester she bought bold elegant clothes.
Another semester she tried sporty.
Then edgy.
Then effortlessly casual.
Most of those outfits eventually ended up folded in the back of her closet.
In the end she returned to what felt safest:
plain t-shirts and jeans.
Every time she tried dressing like someone impressive, she felt strangely hollow.
Like she was wearing someone else’s costume.
Emily eventally did the sensible thing and applied for several local jobs.
None were glamorous, but they promised stability and steady pay.
When two companies called her back for interviews, Emily nearly danced around the kitchen.
When both companies offered her the job, she sat at the table staring at the offers.
One job paid a little more.
The other offered better benefits... and an extra week of vacation time.
Emily tapped the papers against the table.
More money… or more time.
Finally she pushed the higher-paying offer aside.
Work-life balance sounded wiser.
Two weeks later she found herself sitting in the lobby of the office building waiting to meet the person who would train her.
The Reunion
“Was your name Emma?” the receptionist asked.
Emily closed her eyes for half a second.
“No,” she said politely. “It’s Emily.”
“Oh right. Sorry.” The receptionist slid a form across the counter.
“Just sign here. Your trainer should be here any second.”
Emily signed and walked to the waiting chairs.
She brushed a bit of lint from her gray slacks.
Then she heard heels clicking across the lobby floor.
“Emily? Oh my gosh it’s so good to see you!”
Emily looked up.
Standing in the doorway was none other than Xanthe.
“Xanthe?” Emily stuttered.
Xanthe beamed. Her smile was bright and effortless.
“I’m so excited I get to train a familiar face,” she said. “I remember you being so smart in school. I bet you’ll pick everything up here really fast.”
Emily felt her cheeks flush.
Nobody had ever complimented her like that before.
Almost immediately she felt the familiar prickle of sweat under her arms.
Great.
Now she was nervous too.
“It’s good to see you too,” she said.
The words felt awkward in her mouth.
But they were the only ones she could find.
“Come on,” Xanthe said, already reaching for Emily’s box. “I’ll help you with your stuff. We can catch up while I take you to your cubicle.”
Before Emily could object, Xanthe grabbed the box holding her keyboard, water bottle, fake plant, and favorite pens.
She hooked her arm lightly through Emily’s.
“Come on,” she said. “This way.”
And just like that, Emily followed the coolest girl from grade school back into her life.
Someone Like You
Xanthe steered Emily down a row of cubicles as if she had been guiding people through this maze her entire life.
“Here we are,” she said, setting Emily’s box down on the desk. “This is your new command center.”
Emily looked around at the gray fabric walls and humming computers. It wasn’t glamorous, but it felt official. Adult. The kind of place where people who knew what they were doing came every morning with purpose.
Xanthe pulled out the chair and spun it toward the desk. “Go ahead, sit. First rule of this place: claim your chair before someone else does.”
Emily smiled nervously and sat down while Xanthe started unpacking the box she had carried.
“So,” Xanthe said casually, placing the keyboard on the desk, “how have you been since… what… eighth grade?”
Emily laughed softly. “Something like that.”
“Wow,” Xanthe said. “Time flies.”
Emily watched as Xanthe set the fake plant carefully in the corner of the desk like it was the final touch.
“So you work here already?” Emily asked.
“For now,” Xanthe said.
Emily looked up. “For now?”
“Yeah.” Xanthe leaned back against the desk. “I actually leave next week.”
Emily blinked. “Leave?”
“I got a position with a consulting firm,” Xanthe said. “They send teams all over the world depending on the project.”
“All over the world?” Emily repeated.
“Yep. Supply chains, logistics, infrastructure stuff. I could be in Singapore one month and Germany the next.”
Emily stared at her.
“That sounds… amazing.”
Xanthe shrugged lightly. “I think it will be.”
Emily looked down at the cubicle desk in front of her. The keyboard. The plant. The stack of training manuals waiting to be opened.
“That makes sense,” she said quietly.
“What does?” Xanthe asked.
Emily hesitated, then shrugged.
“I mean… someone like you. Of course you'd be doing something like that.”
Xanthe tilted her head. “Someone like me?”
“You know,” Emily said, fiddling with one of the pens from her box. “Confident. Adventurous. The kind of person who actually does interesting things.”
The words slipped out before she could stop them. “I could never really measure up to someone like you.”
For a moment Xanthe didn’t say anything.
Then she smiled. “Emily.”
Emily looked up.
“That’s not true.”
Emily gave a small doubtful smile.
“It kind of is.”
Xanthe shook her head. “You’ve always underestimated yourself.”
She opened one of the drawers in the cubicle and started pulling a few things out.
“I was terrible at math in school,” she said casually. “You helped me pass two tests, remember?”
Emily blinked.
“I did?”
“Yep.” Xanthe grinned. “You explained fractions to me with pizza slices.”
Emily laughed despite herself.
“I forgot about that.”
“See?” Xanthe said. “You were always smart. You just didn’t make a big show of it.”
She reached into the drawer again and pulled out a small pouch.
Inside were several sleek little containers.
“Ah, I was wondering where these were,” Xanthe said.
Emily leaned forward slightly.
“What are those?”
“Travel containers,” Xanthe said, holding one up. “Junamour Jars are my favorite ones.”
Emily turned it over in her hands.
It was small, simple, and oddly elegant.
“I’ve never seen these before.”
“They’re amazing,” Xanthe said. “You can take your normal products when you travel instead of those weird little hotel bottles. And they're designed so you can fit more in your bag.”
Emily laughed.
“That seems like a low bar.”
“You’d think,” Xanthe said. “But it’s surprisingly hard to find.”
She slipped the jars back into the pouch.
“I’ve been slowly building my travel kit.”
Emily looked at the pouch again.
“You’re really going to be traveling that much?”
Xanthe shrugged.
“That’s the plan.”
Emily imagined airports. Foreign cities. New languages. New people.
It felt like imagining another planet.
“Wow,” Emily said quietly.
Bigger Adventures Ahead
The rest of the week passed quickly.
Xanthe showed her how to navigate the software, introduced her to coworkers, and explained the little unwritten rules of the office.
Which coffee machine worked best.
Which printer jammed the least.
Which manager liked reports formatted a certain way.
By Friday afternoon, Emily finally felt like she could breathe.
Xanthe stood beside her desk, slinging a bag over her shoulder.
“Well,” she said, “this is it.”
She paused, then pulled one travel container from her bag.
“You should keep this.”
Emily blinked.
“For what?”
Xanthe smiled.
“For when you finally decide to go somewhere interesting.”
The Beginning of Something
Emily felt an unexpected lump in her throat.
“So this is goodbye?”
“Not goodbye,” Xanthe said, scribbling her number on a sticky note. “Just see you later.”
She handed it to Emily.
“Stay in touch.”
Then she paused at the door.
“Hey Emily?”
“Yeah?”
“When you finally take your first real trip,” Xanthe said, “call me. I’ll tell you where to start.”
Then she disappeared around the corner.
Emily looked down at the small Junamour Jar Xanthe had left behind.
It seemed like such a simple thing.
Just a small travel container someone might forget about.
Emily placed the jar in her desk drawer and closed it. She grabbed her personal belongings and headed home for the weekend.
At the time, she had no idea that the little jar sitting in her desk would eventually take her thousands of miles away from that office.
What Are Travel Containers?
Travel containers are small refillable bottles or jars designed to hold toiletries such as shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, skincare products, and cosmetics while traveling.
Most travel containers are made to comply with the TSA 3-1-1 rule, which limits carry-on liquids to containers of 3.4 oz (100 ml) or less stored in a clear quart-size bag.
High-quality travel containers are:
• leakproof
• reusable
• durable
• easy to refill and clean
Travelers use them to pack their favorite products without bringing full-size bottles.
How to Pack Toiletries for Travel (Simple Method)
Frequent travelers use a simple system to pack liquids efficiently.
Step 1: Use refillable travel containers
Choose leakproof travel jars that hold 3.4 oz or less.
Step 2: Pack only what you actually use
Bring travel-sized amounts of shampoo, conditioner, skincare, and sunscreen.
Step 3: Use a clear liquids bag
Store containers inside a quart-size bag to comply with TSA rules.
Step 4: Keep liquids near the top of your carry-on
This makes airport security easier.
Step 5: Refill containers after every trip
Frequent travelers keep a travel kit ready to go.
Travel Containers FAQ
What are the best travel containers for carry-on liquids?
The best travel containers are leakproof, reusable containers that hold 3.4 oz (100 ml) or less so they comply with TSA rules.
Do creams and gels count as liquids for TSA?
Yes. TSA considers creams, gels, lotions, toothpaste, sunscreen, and liquid makeup to be liquids.
How do you prevent toiletries from leaking in luggage?
Use high-quality travel containers with secure lids and store them inside a clear liquids bag.
Why do frequent travelers use refillable travel jars?
Refillable travel jars allow travelers to bring their preferred products instead of relying on hotel toiletries.
Coming Next in Emily’s Story
Emily thought the little travel jar would sit quietly in her desk drawer forever.
She was wrong.
And soon she would discover that sometimes the smallest things are the ones that open the biggest doors.