What’s in My Bag? (SLIS Edition)
Posted March 2, 2026 by Brooke Thomson
Hi readers!
We’ve got a change in scenery today. I’m writing to you from the Simmons Graduate Admissions Office, where I now give SLIS tours part time. But evidently no one wants a tour today—so blogging it is! Like I said two weeks ago, this semester is a busy one. And it’s only getting busier.
But I don’t want to talk about that! Let’s have some fun this week and do a text-based What’s In My Bag? (SLIS Edition)!
I almost always carry a back-pack with me to campus. So what the heck is in there that makes it so heavy?
My Laptop
This is one of the heaviest things in my bag, but I can’t go to school without it. I’ve had my computer for almost 10 years and am doing everything in my power to keep it functional for as long as I can. I’m not one for new tech (a hard thing to be in this field…). And like pretty much every student in this country, I decorate the case in stickers. Most of them represent places I’ve traveled, like South Carolina and Atlanta. But I’ve got fanart of Paul Atreides, an axolotl drinking strawberry milk, and Morph from Treasure Planet too. You can learn a lot about someone from their stickers, and I like to scope out other peoples’ when I’m in class or studying at the library.
Notebook + Portable Planner
Even though I bring my laptop to school, I actually don’t use it to take notes. I prefer to use a spiral notebook for that. Similarly, even though I keep a Google Calendar for things like my class schedule, work schedule, meetings and events, I still always use a handwritten planner. The information that goes in there is slightly different. For example, I tend to put homework assignments, projects, and general to-do’s in there—information that doesn’t go in the Google Calendar. Plus random thoughts, or notes like “Blizzard!!” because we had one of those again last week. I just prefer to handwrite where possible. I feel that my recall is better that way, and I like the physical act of writing itself.
No Less Than Five Writing Utensils
Continuing on with handwriting, my favorite writing instrument is a black ink pen! My go-tos (am I saying that right?) are those super cheap BIC Cristal Ballpoint Stick Pens, but I’ll use basically any pen with black ink. In my bag right now it’s the BIC, a Paper Mate Flair Guard Pen, a Pilot G-2 05, and a click-y Boston Public Library Pen. In addition to those I’ve got a blue pen, an orange pen, a green highlighter…On average I only use one of these for the entire day, but it’s good to be prepared.
32 oz Water Bottle
If up till now you were thinking, “What’s she on about? None of that’s very heavy,” hold your horses! We’ve got to stay hydrated. One of the biggest contributors to weight in my bag is my water bottle. I also joke that it’s my self-defense weapon because it’s made of metal and makes all kinds of raucous noise if I drop it.
Book
There’s almost always a book to read for fun in my bag as well. Right now, it’s Buried Deep by
Naomi Novik, a chunky hardcover I picked up at the library. If you haven’t read anything by Novik, I’m a big fan of her Temeraire series—it’s a wonderful reimagining of the Napoleonic wars from the perspective of a British naval officer with a dragon! Buried Deep itself is a collection of fantastical short stories, some of which relate to her existing works (like Temeraire and Spinning Silver), while others play with recognizable tales (Pride and Prejudice, Sherlock Holmes, and the Greek myth of the Minotaur).
Headphones
I listen to music constantly, so my other regulars are my over-ear headphones and my Apple earbuds. I like to have both in case one of them crashes out on me, but the over-ear ones are in a container that won’t fit if things get too full. I technically didn’t bring it today because I didn’t want the additional weight. But one of these is always handy when I’m on the bus, the train, walking to and from campus, etc. In fact, I’m using my earbuds right now to listen to “Elton John’s Rocket Hour” on Apple Music! It’s a huge playlist with lots of great new artist features. Right now I’m on Die Happy by Holly Humberstone.
Miscellaneous
The rest of my bag is a hodge-podge of random things that aren’t worth their own categories. I’ve got a taser, feminine hygiene products, tissues, my wallet, my keys, a Fuji apple, a single starburst, a single caramel cube, some hair ties, a box of mints, and my gloves. And chargers for my phone and my computer. Quite the assortment! You can probably see how it all adds up by the time I zip the bag closed. There was even a banana in there too, but I ate it halfway into the blog so. No more banana.
And thus concludes our What’s In My Bag? tour! I hope you found it entertaining. I had fun
writing about it. Have a great Spring Break, I’ll see you all in a couple weeks