A week ago, when Governor Ron DeSantis declared that the remainder of Florida’s school year would be completed through distance learning, I decided to do something I’d been putting off: clean out my backpack.

I wore a backpack to work when I first began to teach. I bought a black & red argyle backpack, matching my school’s colors. I was 25, young-looking, and sometimes got mistaken for a middle school student particularly due to carrying a backpack. I carried a purse for the next ten years to school. I wrote all about professionalism & purses here.

Nowadays, firmly entrenched in #momlife & a good deal more world-weary as a teacher, not to mentioned having changed up my wardrobe a bit after switching to elementary music, I have returned to backpack carrying for school & personal purposes. I bought a purple Kipling on sale in November of 2018 & haven’t looked back.

The last time I’d fully cleaned out my backpack was in May of 2019, after volunteering with my feeder high school at a music festival. I got caught unaware in one of the biggest downpours I’d ever experienced, and had to clean out & wash the backpack after that. It held up to machine washing and has continued to hold up well since then.

I’ve trekked with my backpack all over Orlando, but am not really using it at the moment. Because I’m making a teaching #pivottovideo, I filmed myself clearing out my backpack. Come for me holding back crying, pulling out little cards & tags from students, and stay for some over-explained X-Files references.