Airports and schools have a striking resemblance these days. Whether you’re walking the concourse at Chicago O’Hare or down a long hallway at Millard North High School, you’ll hear the same sound – the hum of wheels rolling across the floor, the pull of bags behind hallway travelers.To me, this sound seems out of place down the corridors and across the parking lots of the college I attend… and had I still been in high school, I would have protested the change.
It’s a new form of backpack, though I would hardly call it such. In my opinion it’s not a backpack, unless in fact you carry it on your back. These new bags are akin to small suitcases, nearly one and the same. They have the look of a Jansport with the benefits of a Samsonite. Pull-up handles on the top and inline wheels on the bottom allow students to haul their textbooks like luggage behind them. Of course, it still has 2 over- the-shoulder straps “in case rolling is not an option.”
But why the change? Why are we packing school books into suitcases as if we were leaving on a one week vacation? Why are we dragging them along behind us like a load too weighty to bear?
If it’s up for debate, I want pull-behind bags to be reserved for airports alone. If they permeate our school hallways, then the aura of the suitcase will be gone… lost to commonality. And I rather like having the airport be a world like no other – a place where you see the suitcase and know what it means, a place where anticipation floats in the air like the smell of sweet pie, a place where you depart to unexplored worlds and return to the one place you love most. It is there - in the airport – where the suitcase belongs. It is there, in that place where we seldom take our loved ones for granted. We see their face breaking through the crowd, we see the suitcase behind them, and we rise. We rise to meet them, to hear their tales, and to pull the load with them.
So, maybe I’m resistant to change. Maybe I’m exaggerating the issue. Maybe I should try a roller-bag for myself.
Or maybe not. Maybe I’ll stick with the traditional, yet studious, look of the backpack. It “suits” me just fine.
1 comment:
This morning Morgan faced the dilemma of choosing between the two types of backpacks you mention. She has both types . . her "suit case" would be too heavy. But last year's model wasn't big enough to keep her folded jacket from "tormenting her papers." She was quite concerned that her papers were being folded in the smaller backpack . . but did not want to mess with the heavier version either. Such quandries for one so young. She ended up going with last year's model. Once again proof that she is "Kristi's twin".
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