Spirit Week took a creative turn this year with “Anything But a Backpack Day,” a popular theme that challenged students to ditch their regular backpacks and carry their school supplies in for just about anything else.
From kayaks and toy cars to rice bags and cooking pots, students flooded the campus with inventive, absurd and downright ridiculous alternatives to the typical backpack.
So, let’s take a look at the kinds of not-backpacks the Barons brought.
Photos by Kevin Sears
“I brought an air fryer. It’s pretty simple. I tossed all my stuff into an air fryer and cleaned it out a little bit, [because] I wanted [to do] something fun for my senior year,” senior Charlie Kosh said. “I always bring food to my Sports Med class during third period, so I thought, why not bring something different today? I tossed some frozen stuff from my bag into the air fryer, and in the middle of class, I just popped it out and started cooking.”“I brought a baby carrier that goes on your stomach,” senior Anna Quist said. “I just had it lying around, and it’s not technically a backpack since it’s worn on the front. I think it’s funny because it looks like I’m carrying a baby; you can’t really see my stuff, so it just looks like there’s a baby in there.”“I brought a Kirkland jasmine rice bag. I just saw it lying there in the kitchen and thought it’d be pretty funny since I’m Asian. It was just the most random thing I could think of,” senior Jake Nguyen said.“So I didn’t really know what to use so I went to my pantry, and I saw a lot of pots, and I thought that they would fit all my stuff in there,” sophomore Natalie Nguyen said. “I like it because my dad cooks pho in it.”“I looked in my closet and saw the luggage, and I decided, hmm, sounds pretty good to bring it to school. I like strolling around and crashing into people when they go into class,” sophomore Natalia Le said.“I brought my little baby sister’s pink car. So basically, it’s like a little push cart, and in the front trunk, I put all my stuff in it,” sophomore Ava Nguyen said. “It’s very fun because I get to roll around in it, and it’s just—I just feel like I have so much aura with it.”“I thought [about], what can I bring that is gonna scare everybody and shock everybody? What can I bring that is the largest thing in my garage that I can actually carry on myself? And it turns out it’s the inflatable kayak,” senior Derek Ngo said. “The sheer size is really amusing, right? Everybody comes here with a small backpack—maybe a bag, a cereal box, whatever it may be—and I come in here with a full-grown freaking inflatable kayak. The shock factor is what’s great about it.”
