by Georgia Norton
The start of a new school year is the perfect time to reinvent yourself. You can get a new haircut. You can buy a new pair of shoes. Hey, you could even start a club for Just Dance. When August roles around, everyone is eager for something new.
Especially new backpacks. Now for some, a backpack is just a convenient way to carry books from class to class, but to others, backpacks define a social circle and display an interest, talents, or hobby. For Senior Sarah followill, her backpack does a little bit of each.
The senior backpack tradition–that is, the tradition in which senior girls get matching backpacks with their friends for senior year–is perhaps the most sacred at Lovett, just edging out jumping in the pond No one knows when, or how, or why it began, but it seems the trend has become as much a part of the senior uniform as the plaid skirt or v-neck shirt.
For most, they simply purchase backpacks with matching themes–neon pink, animals, super heroes, the list goes on–but this year Sarah Followill and her best friend Samantha Austin went for something a bit more personal with hand-embroidered, painted, and pinned bags.
Sarah showed me hers; a once-simple canvas bag is now embroidered with the Great Wave of Kanagawa and a line of graceful black birds, frozen mid flight. Her initials, SF, sit above a zipper like a tiny signature on a famous piece of art. Even the straps are decorated with silhouetted birds, these painted in gold leaf rather than embroidered. The top of the bag is covered in stars.
Sarah said hers took about 15 hours since she did all of the embroidery. We met on a Wednesday morning in the cafe, both speaking up to be heard above the din. But she didn’t mind having to put in the effort. “I just wanted something different and I’m really happy with both of them, so it was worth it,” she said. She explained to me her painstaking process: sewing the birds and the wave, painting with acrylic, gold leaf, and even cutting up a sponge to make a proper star shape.
Sarah covered Samantha’s in acrylic sunflowers and snaking vines, with her nickname“Sammy” written across the small pocket. Though it is simpler, it is still breathtaking. “Hers took me maybe six or seven hours,” Sarah said, “but I just worked on them driving in the car with her this summer on vacation, so it was a good way to pass the time.”
“We didn’t want to do the same thing as everyone else,” Sarah said, “and I think these say more than just some random bag off of amazon.” It’s true, the backpack really does capture her; each little detail is entirely personal, from her obvious affinity for art to the Danny Phantom and Lizzie Mcguire pins on the side.
As for the other senior groups, many say that it’s more about doing something with their friends rather than showing off their talents or interests. Though the idea of having backpack groups solely to show who you’re friends with can seem exclusionary or cliquey, most agree that it brings together the senior class more than it separates them.
“It’s a tradition, I feel like it’s like a mark of being a senior,” said one girl with a neon pink backpack. “It’s something I’ve always looked forwards to.”
So, whether they’re painted and personalized or simply purchased, backpacks can say a lot about you: your community, personality, hobbies, and more. Or, if you’d rather, it can just get your books to English this afternoon. Your call.
(Alternate title for this article is Backpacks are Back, the new black, we’ve got a knack not to backtrack the sacks decorate with shellac, more fun than an almanac or dental plaque some are leatherback, we’re bringing back the backpack ack it’s a backpack attack.)
