What’s In My Bag?

My Glove Box 

My name is Amy Stiff. I am a High School Social and Legal Studies teacher on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuu’tina, Stoney Nakoda First Nations, and the Metis Nation Region 3 (Calgary, Alberta). 

The bag I have chosen is not a bag, but instead the glove compartment of my SUV. The reason I have decided to explore the contents of my glove box, rather than a bag, is because I very rarely carry a bag. In my glove compartment you will find my wallet, disposable masks, a pen, a reusable straw, a co-op receipt with a car wash code, a pack of gum, lip balm, a portable lint roller, body spray and several packages of condiments. 

The item that stands out most in this array is my wallet, an item that most people would keep in a more secure place that is less susceptible to theft. I have considered the risks of keeping my wallet in my glove box, but have ultimately decided it is the favorable alternative to needing it and realizing it’s been left at home, at work, a restaurant, a friend’s house, wherever I was last… something that has happened to me many times as I can be quite forgetful, particularly when it comes to misplacing items. 

This one component of my identity (being forgetful) however, contrasts with who I feel I am in other aspects of my life. The other items in my globe box are an example of this; included are just the necessities, all with rhyme or reason as to the necessities of day to day life. The masks, gum, lip balm, lint roller, body spray are all the necessities of any busy person on the go, and the ketchup packets are an important part of the sausage breakfast sandwich that I order every so often where ketchup is very rarely included in the bag. While not unlike the glove boxes of many other working women and men in the global north, I feel that these contents are a fair representation of the image that I project. 

Text Technologies  

The payment and membership cards in my wallet could be considered digital technologies. The ability to manage and use these various cards demonstrate a technological literacy, and an ability to communicate with and through 21st century society. These cards may also point to financial literacy. Other items in my glovebox, though not digital themselves, are digitally produced; the print on my disposable masks, the gas station receipt, and all of the labeling on the remaining items such as the chapstick, gum, body spray etc. This demonstrates that I live my life in a world which emphasizes technology and digital print and that to navigate my world, one must likely need technological literacy. 

The print on these items also point clearly to the fact that I live in a bilingual country. The labels on many of these items are both in English and in French. A cultural archeologist might venture a guess that I am also bilingual (English and French), and they would be correct. They may also remark that I live in an area that has been thoroughly globalized, with each of the items in my glove box being sourced from various countries around the world; Canada, China, Cambodia, and the USA. On the note of globalization, the masks in my glove box would also point to the fact that I am alive during a global pandemic, and am scientifically literate enough to understand how the coronavirus can be transmitted. 

Completing this exercise has caused me to reflect about the stories that our belongings tell about us and the worlds in which we situate ourselves. How others might interpret the lifestyle attached to certain belongings and what that says about the individual, their literacies, hobbies and lifestyles.