Behind the Scenes in Molly's Backpack

Back to School is such an exciting time! Being back on campus, especially after working in a dark office ALL summer is so nice I almost haven’t minded the 100 degree heat wave we had on the first few days of classes. I’ve never felt so excited for the start of a new semester - fall semester has always been my favorite but I felt super rejuvenated and ready to get to business when we started back. I most definitely missed seeing my friends everyday and being around people my own age.

I was also super excited to get the chance to participate in back to school shopping again! I love staying organized and getting the school supplies to help me with that.

Since it’s back to school season, I thought it would be fun to take a look inside my backpack for this semester and talk about my favorite items!

First and foremost, I’m a huuuge fan of backpacks. After trying three backpacks in my first three years of school I finally found one that I absolutely love. It’s a black Adidas backpack with a front pouch, one large pocket, and a built in laptop sleeve with cup holders on each side. The cup holders are made of the same material as the backpack rather than mesh like most backpacks. I’m notorious for storing other things in the cup holders rather than drinks and sometimes that means a hole forms in the mesh so this was a key element for me. Another important component is the built-in laptop pocket. There is a padded compartment behind the main part that has a protective laptop pocket and means that I don’t have to carry an additional laptop sleeve in my bag! I bought mine at Costco in the spring, but here is a link to the same one on Amazon.

The front pocket of my backpack carries all of my technology items. As an engineering student, my calculators are EVERYTHING (who wants to do mental math anymore-not me!) and I have to carry two because the requirements for calculators tend to vary by class. This pocket also holds my computer mouse - I love mine because it clicks silently so it doesn’t draw attention in class.

I always travel with my phone charger, especially because I have this cute gold one I got from Amazon! My last splurge purchase after co-op was a set of airpods. I am a little embarrassed at spending so much money on headphones BUT I can wholeheartedly say they have changed my life in the week I have had them. The cord free design! The way they block out the world around me! The way they fit in my ears so perfectly! The fact that they stop playing when I take one out of my ear to talk to someone on the sidewalk and start playing again as soon as I put it back in! The sleek case that also charges them! Honestly they’re such a marvel of engineering and I love them.

Moving into the main compartment of my backpack I have my pencil pouch that holds my pens, pencils, markers, and an assortment of sticky notes. I got this cute pencil pouch over the summer and it’s the perfect size to hold everything I need. I bought the mechanical pencils in a huge pack my first year of college and have been working through them ever since. I use pencils for most of my schoolwork and always have a ton on me.

I also use sticky notes for EVERYTHING! The yellow ones are super long and so nice to make long notes and questions on. It’s also nice if I run out of space in my planner and need to stick an extra page on top to add more space to plan out my day. The arrow ones are thin and translucent and nice to use to mark pages in textbooks so I know how much I have left to get through.

Also in the main pocket I keep my notebooks and my planner. My laptop stays in the laptop pocket unless I’m using it - which is a lOt. This semester I only have one class that I don’t have online notes for; the professor for my linear algebra class doesn’t know how to use the internet at all, so every class is just me furiously copying every word from the whiteboard.

If I had to pick one thing in my backpack that is the most important to my success I would have to choose my planner. Seriously, I put every detail in that thing to try to keep my life straight. I both dread and await July each year as that means it’s time for a new planner! I tend to get the eighteen-month planners so that I can start planning for the following year months and months out. I love the planner I got this year, but it didn’t start until August so I was carrying around my old planner until the beginning of August- I was planning for things happening in January all the way from July. (On a completely unrelated note, if anyone wants to hang out with me, I typically am booked at least four weekends out so I need lots of advance notice…)

I bought this planner at TJ Maxx and chose it based on a group of specific criteria I’ve developed over the years.

Enjoy a sneak peak into how booked I am in September!

1. It needs to have both daily planning sections by the week and the entire calendar view of the month. This helps me to see how full my schedule is at a quick glance and then flip to the specific week to see exactly what’s on my plate for that day.

2. The weekly spread has to have enough space that I can write all of my assignments and exams along with social and work commitments in each day’s slot.

3.Before buying a new planner I always check to make sure there is a good amount of note pages in the front or the back of the planner. This one has about 20 in the front and it has a specific tab that says “Notes” to open to it quickly.

4. The size of this planner is nice because it’s the same width of a regular notebook but a little bit shorter so it fits in a purse if I need to take it somewhere else.

If you need me for the next few months, I’ll have my head in my textbooks/laptop trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and this degree. Be patient with us as we figure out a good book/blog balance for the first few weeks of the semester. I hope everyone is enjoying the first little bit of the semester and doing the best you can!

See y’all soon,

Molly