Hi All, I’m Jasmine. Here is my bag.

First off, my purse is actually a fanny pack that I wear as a crossbody. I bought it from Beam Creative Designs at a winter One of a Kind fair. I absolutely love it and always get compliments on it. It really suits my personality, and I feel like it’s the first thing people notice about me. I love how it matches everything I wear, and the floral design adds a touch of femininity.

Since this is a small purse, I really had to cram some of these items in there. As you can see, there are a lot of receipts. Before I explain further, please note that I took my students on a trip the day before I took this picture, so some of these items wouldn’t normally be in my bag.

First, the large piece of paper is a map of St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario, where I took students on the trip mentioned above. The stack of $5 bills is the payment I collected from students for the trip, which I still need to deposit into the trip fund. This leads me to the green slip, which is a form used to process invoices—this one is for a different trip I recently organized. While these items aren’t part of my daily life, they do show how enthusiastic I am about trades, college education, and school trips.

Now, let’s talk about some of the receipts that I felt really show more about me:

• Dollarama: For items I bought for a home cake competition we held over the Christmas break. We do this a couple times a year where my sister and I compete for the best cake and my dad judges. This year my mom participated and we made fancy upside down cakes.
• M&M Food Market: For appetizers I bought for New Year’s Eve—jalapeño poppers are a must-have for us! 
• Canadian Tire: For some fancy, unique Christmas ornaments. My Christmas tree is very eclectic, filled with individual ornaments instead of a matching set, even though it costs a lot more money overall. 
• Mission Thrift Store: This is from when I bought a family Bible and two Christmas brooches for my mom and me to wear at our church bake sale that I helped organize.
• Bulk Barn coupon: Earned from buying supplies for the baking competition mentioned earlier.
• Casino card: From a trip to the casino during Christmas break with my parents and sister. I do not go often, but it usually stays in my purse just in case. 
• Cloth bag: From a visit to a crystal store, where I bought some stones as Christmas gifts for my mom and sister. I kept them in the bag because I forgot about them until a week ago, but never got rid of the bag.

As for regular, everyday items in my bag:

• Headphones: For audiobooks, TV shows on the go, or music—all of which I consider forms of text.
• Wallet
• Car keys
• Gum
• Chapstick
• Pen and Sharpie
• Spoon

These items all tell a little something about me, but the details behind them wouldn’t necessarily come to mind for someone just looking at this picture or if they were to go through my purse. To explore what someone or something might think of me based solely on the contents of my purse, I used ChatGPT and asked, “The following picture is the contents of my purse. What does this say about me as a person?”

Here’s what it said:

The contents of your purse offer a glimpse into your lifestyle, habits, and priorities. Here’s an analysis based on the image:

1. Practical and Organized:

   – You have a map of St. Lawrence College, suggesting you’re prepared and value orientation in your environment.

   – The receipts and payment request form indicate a focus on accountability, whether personal or professional.

2. Budget-Conscious and Resourceful:

   – Coupons for Bulk Barn suggest you are mindful of savings and like to plan purchases thoughtfully.

   – The assortment of receipts shows you track spending, which could reflect a habit of budgeting.

3. Prepared for Everyday Needs:

   – Items like gum, lip balm, and Beats headphones show attention to personal comfort and enjoyment.

   – Your wallet and keys are essentials, highlighting practicality.

4. Creativity and Personality:

   – The floral bag reflects a vibrant and expressive personality.

   – Small touches, like the cloth pouch, add a sense of personal charm or eco-consciousness.

5. Multitasker:

   – The range of items (e.g., work-related forms, personal care items, and money management tools) suggests you juggle multiple roles and responsibilities effectively.

 

Overall, your purse’s contents convey that you’re a practical, organized individual who balances work, personal care, and financial planning, with a touch of personality and creativity. Let me know if you’d like further reflection!

I found these AI observations interesting because they don’t account for the actual state of my bag and instead make generalized assumptions that don’t align with how I see myself or with the explanations above. For example, the receipts were just stuffed in my purse, not at all organized—some would even fall out when I pulled my phone out. It also interpreted my items as evidence of balancing work and financial planning, which isn’t entirely accurate. What it really saw were a form I happened to pick up that day, some receipts over a month old, and cash I collected from students for a trip. If someone looked at my purse objectively, they might even assume I was headed to the casino that day because of the cash and my casino card.

Reflecting on what my bag would have looked like 15 years ago, it would have been completely different. At 16, I can’t remember exactly what I carried, but it likely included a longer, more fashionable wallet and an iPod. I might have had some receipts, though not many, as my mom covered most expenses. I definitely wouldn’t have had car keys since I started driving later, and I wouldn’t have had a casino card because I wasn’t old enough.

Looking into the future, I imagine my bag will evolve again. My car will likely be different, and I’d hopefully carry items related to my future kids, like toys or snacks, along with a prayer card and maybe different headphones. I imagine I’ll still have lip chap, gum, and receipts, regardless of the time period. As for cash, I’m uncertain whether I’ll carry any at all or if it will become almost obsolete. Only time will tell where currency is headed.

Overall, if we look at the specific text based items in my purse, there are a lot that have physical text but if we look at text in the form of storytelling or speaking, there are a lot of items that contain that form of aural text. Let’s consider that each receipt represented a form of communication that happened during and around each encounter or how there was a conversation around each time a student gave me money for the trip. If we see text in the purest form, without writing, each element in the purse represents that element. We should be thinking about text in its many forms and look at each item that surrounds us with that textural memory.