Task 1: What’s in my bag?

1. My current bag. I prefer a backpack over a purse for work and this is the smallest possible backpack I can use.
2. A hand sewing kit for English Paper Piecing. It contains needles, thread of various colours, a small pair of scissors, clips, and paper templates wrapped in fabric.
3. Paint samples of the colours used in my home.
4. Sunscreen for hands and face.
5. My journal, day planner, and ereader.
6. Post it notes and a collection of pens and markers.
7. A pouch for masks, a pouch marked with a “D” for dirty masks, and a bottle of hand sanitizer.
8. Reusable shopping bags.
9. My wallet.
10. A spare roll of dog waste bags.
11. A lanyard from a school I worked at previously with my work key, building access card, a 64 gb usb key, an Eiffel tower charm, and a small square of moose hide.
12. A small hygiene kit with mints, lip balm, vitamin C, a nail file and clips, a hair brush and various types of elastics, and dental floss.
13. Swiss Army knife.
14. Bluetooth headphones.
15. Two touques, a pair of mittens, and a pair of instant hand warmers.
16.  *Removed from bag and not in picture: grocery store receipts from the past few months and a pile of tiny pebbles from the beach where I last went camping.

Not every item in my bag is one I use daily. For example, the paint colour samples were in my bag from my last trip to Home Depot. Normally, they are in a file folder for future reference. The items I use daily or near-daily include my wallet, pens, journal, dayplanner, headphones, touque and/or mitts, floss, and sunscreen. Some items I would like to use more often, such as my sewing kit and ereader. Notably absent from this picture is my smart phone, which I use multiple times each day, but needed in order to take the photo.

Some of these items are easily considered texts, such as my journal, day planner, and ereader. Others may be more difficult to see as texts, such as a quilt in progress. The hand sewing kit is for a quilt that I began in March of this year. I found myself attending multiple Zoom meetings a day and needed a task that would keep my hands busy while still being able to concentrate on the content of the meetings. While the ereader may seem like the most obvious example of technology used to access texts, the headphones are used more often to listen to podcasts and audiobooks.

My colleagues consider me to be a very organized person, which I think is reflected by the presence of smaller pouches and bags used to organize items, and items that are not used every day but are useful when you need them. Those closest to me would see the fact that I carry many of these items with me each day as my way of dealing with anxiety and a strong dislike of being unprepared.

Even one year ago, my bag looked very different. The most obvious being the masks and hand sanitizer. An archeologist looking at the contents of this bag would likely be able to accurately identify the time period by that alone. In the last few years, I carried a large bag with my lunch, all of these items, as well as running shoes, gym clothes, and other items needed for working out as well as a blow dryer and makeup kit. With gyms being closed now, it has drastically reduced the amount of things I carry each day. Throughout the year, my bag and its contents also change. This bag is quite small and forces me to carry a separate lunch kit. In warmer weather, when I often walk or bike to work, I carry a larger bag that can accommodate my lunch as well as these items.

Were an archeologist to look at this bag, I think it would be evident that this time, for people my age (an older millennial), is one where we have one foot in the digital and the other in the analog. While I was a quick adopter of the ereader, I still prefer to organize my thoughts and schedule on paper.

For those reading, if you feel comfortable, I’d love for you to share what assumptions you may have made about me when viewing the image of what is in my bag.