Backpacks vs. Messenger Bags/One-Strap Bags

<p>I love tote bags, but it's physically impossible for me to carry one with all my books in it...I have a half-hour walk home.</p>

<p>I have the LL Bean Heatwave messenger bag in purple - I've been pretty happy with it. I can always fit all my books in it, and wearing it with the strap across my body doesn't hurt my back (plus the strap's padded.)</p>

<p>Sooo many girls have those hideous colorful bags at our school. I would never get one, they look like old lady bags.</p>

<p>haha I HATE the stupid little purses that fit like ONE pen and nothing else and so the user (a girl...mostly) has to carry all the books, I just don't see the point.</p>

<p>...I'm a girl btw</p>

<p>ooh and I like messenger bags, but they can mess up your back sometimes</p>

<p>I carry a messenger bag but carry my books in my arms. It makes it alot easier to go to my locker... which I do in between every class. During my fresh/soph years I did the whole backpack thing because I didn't have time to go to my locker.</p>

<p>Back in the day when I was in High School, I had a backpack... I actually ended up losing it one day, and after that never carried it again. It was funny how little I cared that my backpack was gone. I'm at a CC now and I carry around a laptop case, but it's got enough room in it to at least hold my folders and maybe a text book depending on the size.</p>

<p>I still see some seniors in backpack with loads of books making it look like they're going hiking. It's like they have a binder for every class with all the textbooks.....</p>

<p>well... you DO have a bunch of text books... big ones too... everyone of the hard class..
my calc book and my bio book and my physics book and my european history book and then my norton english reader... and that's not even ALL... not including the binders and extra stuff we get; for bio we got a whole other book of summaries, a whole other binder with labs, and a whole other binder with practice tests... thats just ONE freaking class. i clean out my backpack every few days to keep it not that heavy.. or else i'd be in the hopsital already. i dont like putting books in backpacks OR messenger/tote whatevers. i just carry all my books in my hand... so basically i'd have like 5 5inch thick books all stacked up and walk around like that to my locker and dump it all there and then do the same thing when i go home... but my shoulder & back loves me.. and my arms get stronger... :D what more can u ask for?</p>

<p>All these stories of people having pounds of books and binders to carry... can't say I can relate at all. I remember freshman and sophomore year being a dork and carrying just the right book and binder for just the right class. Over the years, thankfully (and this is my back and arms saying thank you), I've learned to "streamline" or actually, just calm down and relax with the whole schoolbook thing. </p>

<p>Basically, senior year, I never brought in my math book. I infrequently brought in my physics book. My English book was like nonexistent, even though it cost like a hundred bucks (it stayed in my good old locker). I only brought in my AP Euro book every class day because my teacher would do random "book quizzes" and you got either a zero or a hundred, based on whether or not your brought your book. By third term, though, even then I started leaving that five-pounder at home or in my locker. </p>

<p>What I did instead of bringing books:
1. Shared books with a more "responsible" friend (and friends always let friends share books).
2. Went to my locker after class each time (actually not that difficult to do, if you aren't slow in the halls or need to pee each break or are a bit of a chatterbox with all your friends in the hall). Going to my locker after each class meant that at any given moment I'd only have one school book in my bag, if any-- the rest stayed in the locker.
3. Just had one binder for all seven of my classes-- it IS possible to keep organized and space-efficient and weight-efficient with ONE binder. Plus, I never had to freak out about not having the "right" binder for each class, because I only had one. And I never worried about losing that one binder and in effect losing every single class' notes/homework, because since it's so important, and I have a sort of sense of responsibility, I've never forgotten or misplaced it.
4. Just dealt with not having a book. It's not like my teachers really focused on the book's content during class time, anyway. Books were just for studying for the APs or for helping with the busy-work, fill-in-the-word type worksheets. </p>

<p>Any one who carried their books in their hands at my school would be considered a total nerd/loser. I don't agree with that sentiment (I think it's cruel). But it's easier and more light-weight to learn to streamline everything or just wing it without a certain book for a certain class.</p>

<p>Hence, the great number of messenger/one-strap bags at school. It's not that the students are "gay", or "artsy", or "on light schedules" (i.e. "stupid" or "non-academic"). Most of them just learn how to not literally "burden" themselves (or their backs) with being so precise about all the books and materials they carry. </p>

<p>Plus, no one wants to be considered that nerd that carries all their school crap with them everywhere (though like I said, that's a mean sentiment).</p>

<p>Everyone carries everything here. Classes are held in three separate buildings spread out across campus, and you have five minutes to get to your next class. We need one binder for each class because of all the damn handouts. It's not "nerdy"--it's WIS. :eek:</p>

<p>Wow...I'm surprised that anyone would even notice, much less care, about how many books and binders people carry around with them and whether they carry them in a backpack or in their arms. Then again, I go to an all-girls high school where few people wear make-up or wear their hair in anything but a bun/ponytail to school. Is it different when there are kids of the opposite gender to "impress" with how few books you can manage to get by with?</p>

<p>Jeez... you people go WAYYYY overboard.</p>

<p>Carrying every single textbook and multiple binders?
WHAT FOR?!?!</p>

<p>At my school, the most that we MUST carry is a tiny novel assigned for English. Some people don't even bring it and just read with someone else. I know a guy who doesn't bring a single thing to class except for a pen in his pocket and a couple of sheets of folded up computer paper in his other pocket. MAYBE a book in his hand.</p>

<p>I used to heft a heavy binder for all the subjects, subdivided. Now I just have a messenger bag with my glasses, a pen, cell phone, novel, and some paper.</p>

<p>backpack, :/ I feel short if I carry the messenger bag. :]</p>

<p>Uh, I never said we did it to "impress" anyone. Where did you get that from? No one is trying to impress the opposite sex with how few books and crap they have to carry. They just don't want to look like a nerd carrying every single thing when they could easily stash some of it in their locker. </p>

<p>How is it weird paying attention to what people carry? How is it possible to NOT notice how much people carry? When some kid has a fifty-pound backpack on his back, pencil pouch and three binders in his hands, isn't that OBVIOUS? Come on.</p>

<p>I go to a private prep school too, but we're coed. Unfortunately, to a degree, status and the way you look counts. Yeah, I guess it's different at your "all-girls school" where girls just wear hair buns.</p>

<p>When you go to a coed college maybe you'll see the difference.</p>

<p>i use a backpack, its just more efficient b/c i cant get to my locker between periods. although when i go to college, im going to get a soft briefcase lol, i just think they look cool</p>

<p>backpacks are more comfortable, as long as you don't get the strap-across-the-chest variety, with their funky breast-valley phenomenon.</p>

<p>backpacks...when you have to carry a laptop bag and a backpack because there's only five minutes between classes and your next class is across campus, you'll understand. backpacks are actually cool in northern cali...</p>

<p>"breast-valley"</p>

<p>:) That's hilarious. I've never seen it referred in that way before.</p>

<p>Oh, and x____infatuation: I never said that backpacks aren't "cool." I like backpacks just fine, there's nothing wrong with them. In fact, at my school MOST kids do wear backpacks (although "cool" backpacks are ONLY the ones from North Face... another one of those annoying image things that kids at my school are hung up on). I'm sure that backpacks are "cool" in nor. California and the rest of the country, probably. </p>

<p>I was just saying that messenger/one-strap/shoulder/tote bags are cool and used more often these days too.</p>

<p>Messenger bags look pretty but I carry around books, binders, folders and planners for 7 classes in my backpack. It weighs a ton. But I never have to bother with going to my locker between classes.</p>

<p>I'm probably going to be hunchback one day :( but at least I don't have to go to my locker...</p>

<p>messenger bag</p>