In my school bag

This is my school bag, and up until recently I’d leave the house with it almost every single day. If not to go to work, then to go to a coffee shop to work. If it had an odometer the number would be high.

Pictured we have, a DVI adapter cable, headphones, a phone charger, a plug for my laptop, my laptop, its case, my old school ring-bound planner – I record marks in there! There’s a hairbrush, whiteout, a couple pencils and a pen, my orange folder where I keep kids’ work for at home marking, a French grammar book and a French dictionary of prepositions. Plus of course the bag itself.

I think what we have here really speaks to me being very much of my generation. I was born in 1982, so I don’t quite fit with the millennials, but I’m certainly not a Gen-Xer. I read a definition once though for cuspers  such as myself: XENNIAL! It’s for those of us who grew up analog but came of age digital – and that very well speaks to me. And I think the fact that I bought a book to use as a way to plan my days and to record my students’ names and grades and seating positions in class speaks at least a little to who I am and when I’m from.

« Text technologies » contained therein would certainly be the two books, but there’s of course mountains of text in my computer too. And from the books one could certainly ascertain that I have some degree of bilingualism.

I’m not sure that anything in here is « private », but I’m sure people could draw some conclusions about me based on my cool Apple sticker and felt & leather laptop sleeve and the fact that I carry a hair brush with me – but I’ll leave that to anyone’s imagination.

15 years ago I maybe would have had a laptop in there, but 15 years ago I drove a forklift in a warehouse and was not a student and didn’t have much need of a laptop. 25 years ago I was 13. I’d have still had the pencils and pen and whiteout; I’d have been doing a lot less marking though…

I think an archaeologist would find that this bag is exemplary of a pretty average person in the year 2020, who happens to speak some French.