10 Things Your Student Bag Should Never Be Missing

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” - Charles Darwin

Let’s take Darwin’s word for real. You’ve been in the situation: You’re running down the hallway, meet some lab work partner, you don’t have your notebook handy to jot down what he’s talking about.

You have to wait an hour for your next class, and don’t have your reading assignment with you, or anything to keep you busy.

You’re thirsty. Well, it all comes down to your bag. That’s right, as a student, your life begins and ends with your bag. It contains all you need to survive another day on campus, amidst assignments, social life and career opportunities.

The bag

Personally, I use two kinds of bags:

• a backpack
• a messenger bag

I use the messenger bag for casual trips where I’m not lugging around much stuff, and the backpack comes in handy when I need to carry a lot of books, or when I’m going home to my parents’ place.

Overtime, I’ve come to learn that somethings just need to be on me at all times. This is a tough situation because I usually try to travel as light as I can, but certain essentials are simply indispensable. Here’s what I pack in my bag whenever I leave the house.

1. Reading Assignment: An absolute necessity is to take along a reading assigment. This usually means one extra book or a few pages stapled together, and it becomes insanely useful in those times you’re just stranded waiting with nothing to do. This is efficient study time usage.

2. Markers: To go with your reading, markers are a must for any student. Pens and pencils are an obvious part of a student bag, and markers shouldn’t be an exception.

3. Notepad (small): A collection device, a small notepad. Always handy for jotting down agenda items, tasks, ideas. I personally carry nothing else than the classic Moleskine.

4. Notepad (large): Even though I’m a laptop person, I make sure I have some letter sized (A4) paper with me at all times. Taking meeting notes, lecture notes and the likes is much easier on larger sheets. I’m considering a large Moleskine for this as well, but it just seems expensive for a scrapbook.

5. Laptop: I love my Macbook Air. It’s light, it hardly takes any space, and it holds my documents, tasks and calendar. It also reduces my carrying load as I don’t print out lecture slides anymore, I just use the laptop. I also store all notes and other school documents on here. I print them out just before exam phase.

6. Water: A bottle of water keeps you alive. And healthy. Quit the soda and coffee.

7. Swiss Army Knife: You never know when you might need a toothpick, or a knife, or more importantly: a bottle opener.

8. Paper tissues: The next time you spill soda on someone’s pants, sneeze your brain out or simply need to wipe the grim out of your face, you’ll thank me.

9. Small perfume vial: I always keep one of those free sample vials of eau de toilette you seem to find everywhere. Keeping a small version of a deodorant, or anything else to freshen up will save your appearance on a long day. This goes for us men, too.

10. Mints: Or chewing gum, either way you’ll need something to neutralise that garlic bread from the cafeteria. It’s also proven that chewing enhances brain activity.

That’s hardly an exhaustive list, and I know there’s something in your bag I haven’t listed! Let me know about your essentials in the comments below, I’d enjoy that!

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