What's in a Backpack?

By Jordyn Ghiggeri

Walking around New Rochelle High School you’ll see a variety of bags: overfilled purses, pestering rolling backpacks, average Jansports, and paw patrol backpacks with a water bottle and lunchbox attached. (This person is, clearly, a senior.)

Senior year is a big deal; everything is bittersweet. Events like waking up for senior sunrise, driving to school for the first time, or getting out three periods early come with the notion that they should be remembered forever. Picking out one last backpack means there's only one place to go: the origin. Some people sport them only for the first week of classes, and some ride them out all year, but kid backpacks are an undeniable trend.

Every day, as I wait behind someone with the same Minecraft backpack as a six year old, I laugh. It provokes the question: what are students keeping in their backpacks? How could bags intended for 8 year olds fit all of the supplies a first semester senior needs? 

I began to ask around about what my peers' backpacks consisted of. What did they keep in their backpack? What was most useful and what was least useful? I received mixed replies; most of the senior class is still easing its way out of junior year. There are still binders and notebooks to be found in the backpacks, but the details are different. Most seniors have creative materials. However, juniors’ backpacks consist of 4 folders in varying colors, two binders, five notebooks and two chromebook chargers wrapped together creating what their intestines will feel like during their AP exams. Seniors want their supplies to not only teach them, but represent them. Their folders have funny characters, their laptops are covered in stickers, and their lunchboxes have Bluey and Banjo on the front.

I talked to Micaela Waterston, who proudly sports her The Little Mermaid backpack every day, about if she believed childish backpacks were functional for graduating high school students. She enthusiastically replied, “Well, I think that my kiddie backpack is different from others in the sense that it has a lot of room for all of my daily necessities… I can fit my multi-fold folder, my notebook, my laptop, my agenda, my pencil case, and my entire lunch! It is difficult to fit other things beyond that, but I find that it helps me stay organized and prevents me from cluttering my backpack. I love my kiddie backpack and I will never stop!” Mica clearly takes great pride in her bag of choice. 

Due to the Class of 2024’s major loss of the high school experience because of the COVID pandemic, there aren’t many “senior traditions” that hold up. In a school where the senior class has over 800 students, it's hard to maintain anything year after year. The backpack tradition is a new one and one of the foundations that is being set in order to refute the adversity that has rivaled the Class's enthusiasm.