College A to Z: Backpacks

Hello my lovely blog followers! Happy belated Easter, if you celebrate, and happy springtime if you do not. 🙂 I just want to thank you for your supportive comments on my last post; I’m so lucky to have the best blogging friends in the world. I’ve decided to do the A to Z Challenge this year with a college theme. It won’t hurt my feelings if you want to skip this month’s posts, as it’s not what I typically post. I’ll make sure to post some crafty things in the near future, too! But if you’re interested, then I’m excited to chat about college stuff with you all.

In this series, my plan is to write about the basics of college life, in the hopes that it might help new college students who are nervous about the day-to-day things. A college adviser I am NOT; I don’t even know what my major is. But sometimes the little things are the tricky things: like finding your classes, taking the bus, or figuring out what to eat for lunch. And sure, study habits are important, but so are the little things like getting a new notebook or putting stickers on your notes.

Maybe you’d like to know a little about my own college experience before we start. I’m a sophomore in college, majoring in either English, French, or both, with a writing minor. (Unfortunately, crochet was not an option.) I commute to my university, which means I will be talking about buses quite a lot rather than dorm life. And I’m starting this challenge a day late because, ironically, college got in the way. 🙂

(I love canva.com for making graphics like this!)

College A to Z: “B” is for Backpacks

Backpacks. I’m starting to think I will never be free of them. Mine is sitting next to me, my constant companion, while I write this post. It never fails to amuse me when someone goes to pick up my backpack without realizing how heavy it is, and exclaims, “What do you have in there?!”

Although they might not be the most fashionable choice of bag, they’re the most practical for sure. There are some pretty cute backpacks out there, though. (I have my eye on the ones with glittery sequins all over them.) I received a North Face backpack as a high school graduation present, and it’s been invaluable. But any backpack will do. The important thing is that it has enough space for all your books.

Once you have the bag, it’s a matter of filling it with school supplies. The end goal here is to be prepared for the day without the backpack weighing 25 pounds (an issue I have all too often). Here’s a list of things you may want to have in your backpack. Keep in mind that I’m a commuter student, so I need to have a lot of stuff with me. If you live on campus, you can probably disregard a lot of these suggestions.

• Necessary textbooks for the day – it’s best to leave the ones you don’t need at home or in your dorm, because otherwise it gets really heavy!
• Notebook
• Planner
• Water bottle (it gets expensive to buy drinks from a vending machine – there are usually places to refill your water bottle on campus)
• Snack (granola bar, peanut butter crackers)
• Mints
• Pencil case
• Umbrella (depending on where you live – it rains all the time in my city, so I have a collapsible umbrella with me at all times)
• Hand sanitizer (when one student on campus gets sick, it seems like everyone does!)

One other thing I keep in my backpack is a customized “emergency kit” – basically a small bag with any medication you might need throughout the day, like ibuprofen or whatnot. I also put nail clippers, ponytail holders, hair clips, Band-Aids, and cough drops in here, and it acts as an emergency kit. Just customize it with whatever works for you. It’s a lot easier to put this bag in your backpack rather than packing up each individual thing. This has saved me a lot of trouble.

What do you keep in your backpack? Any tips for making it weigh less? Goodness knows I could use all the help I can get!

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