I love the idea behind the “What’s in your bag?” task and this would be an engaging activity to use with my students in a second language class. My initial thoughts however, were that I rarely carry a bag with me. As a high school teacher, much of what I do is digital, so my day-to-day typically does not require me to bring papers home to mark, nor to have to lug around bulky textbooks. I decided to focus on a day at the beach, a lament for the loss of summer as we transition into autumn and welcome the start of the new academic year. 

I would bring the following items:

• Herschel backpack
• Aussiebum bathing suit
• Pit Viper sunglasses
• Mask handmade by my friend Annie
• Villars chocolate bar
• Beach blanket 
• ID and credit card
• Novel
• Set of keys
• 2 bottles of sunscreen
• Water bottle
• Moleskine notebook
• Uniball black pen
• iPhone 11 and case

An obvious example of text is the green notebook wherein I scribble thoughts, take notes for my grad classes and jot down to-do lists. The Greek origin tektō, in the sense of bringing into the world, is exemplified herein as my thoughts are being transferred from my head to paper with the help of my ball-point pen. The hard copy book Americanah is the author’s tektō as well, and its existence comes from a complex interplay between old and new technologies: the printing press and bookbinding technologies and techniques and digital softwares and hardwares such as Microsoft Word and a laptop to help her type and organize her novel. An interesting side note here is that the advent of the Internet allows me to bypass the act of reading as I can listen to the oral text of this book by downloading or streaming the audiobook. The Internet would also allow me to connect deeper with the novel and its author. I could use my phone to search unknown words, to learn more her, to hear and see her in audio, photo and video format. I can also learn about her background and her writing processes. 

The chocolate bar and the face and body sunscreens contain texts with many languages and are examples of how the modern world engages in global trade. The chocolate bar is made by a Swiss company named Villars and its packaging includes English, French, German, Spanish, Czech, Arabic and Hungarian. The sunscreens by Hydroxatone and Sun Bum, both American companies, are written in French and English in order to be sold in the Canadian market. Another example of global trade is the blanket that I purchased from a vendor who claimed it was made in India. The phone and earbuds are complex examples of trade as they source metals and technological parts from many countries globally such as Peru, China, Japan and many African nations.   

The key ring is a combination of old and new technologies as it contains three traditional metal keys and two FOBS. The keys open the front door to my apartment, the mailbox and the door to my classroom. The FOBs are powered by small circular lithium cell batteries and contain microchips that communicate using radio frequency identification. A similar technology is found in the credit card, featuring both the newer chip technology to communicate purchaser information and the older magnetic stripe. This technology expedites the shopping experience and provides additional purchasing power. 

An avid music enthusiast, I never take for granted the technology that allows me to locate and listen to most of the music that has been recorded through history with the advent of applications like Spotify, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Youtube. My cell phone and earbuds allow me to listen to the multi-layered creations, the texts, of all the artists, writers, producers, sound engineers involved in the creation of these songs. Even the playlists curated by listeners around the world are creations weaving infinite possibilities of songs together. 

In terms of literacy, the journal and pen demonstrate that I can write or at the very least, can scribble symbols or pictures that I can retrieve at a later time for information recall. The novel demonstrates that I read at an adult level seeing as it is a work containing around 500 pages without images (not that images would render it a children’s book). The cell phone indicates that I am technologically literate and should be able to use a phone to make calls, send and receive texts, and use applications for both work and pleasure. 

Twenty-five years ago, this bag would not have had a smartphone nor bluetooth earbuds. Instead, it would have had a discman and a travel CD booklet. In front of each CD would have been the printed booklet- a beautiful example of a melange of woven artistry as the cover features the work of artists, photographers and/or designers. The photography process could have included stylists and makeup artists, all involved in the process of image capture. The liner notes could have included the song lyrics and would have included all of the people involved in the writing of the song itself, as well as writers connected to the samples or interpolations used. Instead of wireless earbuds, I would have had wraparound foam-covered headphones with a long wire. The FOBs would not be on the keyring and all of the company brands would have been different. For example, the Herschel bag would have been Jansport (a more popular, existing brand at the time). Twenty-five years ago, I would not have carried sunscreen and because I would have been eleven years old, I would not have had a driver’s license nor a credit card and instead would have had a student ID and some cash. 

An archaeologist analyzing the contents of my backpack could make an assumption that I am a beach bum of the early twenty-first century. The early 1992 era sunglasses and the 1980s era banana printed speedo may cause confusion when pinpointing when the items would have been occupying space together, but Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2013 novel and an iPhone 11 and Apple bluetooth earbuds would direct them to at least the year 2020. The FOBs on my keychain for car and apartment building, as well as the Klean Kanteen bottle (a company founded in 2004) and the SunBum sunscreen spray (founded in 2010) would help decipher the year. Sadly, and most importantly, the handmade Japanese silk face mask, indicative of pandemic fashion, would direct the archaeologist to at least the year 2020, and hopefully not too far later on the timeline.