Every day there is a powerful tool used by students and faculty alike. Dick Kelty’s 1952 invention is worn by virtually every person you can come across during any given weekday. The immortal contraption whose name is known far and wide to the far-flung reaches of the globe as “the backpack” has proved to be a crucial component to one’s educational experience for much of the past seven decades.
As part of my never-ending quest to share the most unnecessary details of my life, this article will be all about what’s in my backpack. My reason for writing about this completely superfluous topic is because I thought it would be so lovely to share what has so far made my college experience what it’s been at its core. I figured that sharing the material objects that I keep closest to me would be incredibly fulfilling. Just kidding. I needed a reason to clean it out, a deadline to clean it out by, and these articles are due every Tuesday at noon. I thought I might as well make a written, public inventory for the world to (hopefully not) see. Let’s get into it, shall we?
I don’t know about yours, but my backpack is a magical place. I’m not even sure what’s really in it at this point. I just put stuff in there and if it’s lucky, it comes out a week later. It’s basically a black hole with a zipper; a 20-pound scientific anomaly if you will. It was because of this that I approached my horrifically mundane challenge with apprehension. I didn’t know what new, strange realm I had unknowingly allowed my backpack to become. Before diving deep into its depths, I thought of the peculiarities that might await me inside. A week-old apple perhaps? A portal to Narnia? A dominant seventh chord(with corresponding hand gestures)? There was only one way to find out.
Upon sitting down and opening wide its maw I stared into the dark abyss that awaited me, pausing briefly before diving in. I reached inside, and the first object to reluctantly surface was…a textbook. Rhythmic Training by Robert Starer, to be exact. I expected worse. I set it to the side. Next to come out of the black hole was my Mickey Mouse hand sanitizer. We stared at each other for a second before mutually agreeing that we probably wouldn’t see each other for another month. I set him to the side as well. Third out was my Accelerated Keyboard Harmony textbook, Group Piano: Proficiency in Theory and Performance (shoutout Ned, Elizabeth, Trevor, and Natasha). This was probably the heaviest thing in my bag, and definitely the most F-u-N. Next out was a nail clipper, then a pencil, a sharpener for that pencil, a sharpie, my phone charger, The One Ring to Rule Them All, my AirPods, and my laptop. The last items to emerge were, strangely enough, the things that I probably use the most. As a Blair kid about half of the stuff that I keep in my backpack is music, and currently maintaining residence are the likes of Chopin, Debussy, and Prokofiev. Most of the time they’re fun to walk to class with, trust me.
After finally pulling everything out I turned and stared at my small mountain of music, technology, and other paraphernalia. I was mainly really confused as to how all of it even fit. Magic? Answer unclear, ask again later. The main takeaway from this adventure was that I should probably clean out my backpack more often. Oh, and I unfortunately didn’t end up finding that portal to Narnia. Only The Lion, The Witch and The Textbook.