Goodbye backpack
February 15, 2008
Today I formally say goodbye to my most loyal backpack. I discovered a hole about the size of a bottle cap at the bottom. Given time that hole would grow and grow until all my posessions would come crashing out in a panicked escape.
I bought this Firefly backpack with an orange top and black and gray body in my third year of university in preparation for my trip to Japan. That was in 2000, a whole 8 years ago. Since then, my lovely backpack has been to many places including Canada, America, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, Saipan, and many many adventures within these countries.
I had only recently found new ways to make the backpack more useful, using various carabiners (the kind that you can’t use for rock climbing), chains, and clips. The main point of this was to attach my camera to my bag and have it within easy access so that I could whip it out at the first sight of something interesting to shoot. It worked great in Kumamoto a couple weeks ago when I was consistently switching between my camera, an umbrella, and the city map.
Well, today I bought a new backpack – North Face Recon bag – a similar sized backpack with many pockets and dividers and clips. It’s in a nice gray color and I can only imagine the journeys it will be taking me on. It came at a stiff 8500 yen though. My Firefly backpack was a very modest $20 when I bought it. In a commemorative way, I removed clips that were fastened inside the Firefly and plan to stitch them into the Recon.
Goodbye Firefly, I shall be laying you to rest tomorrow by sending you on your last journey beginning from the trash can and ending God only knows where. Very soon I shall be saying goodbye to my pair of very trusty shoes, not as old, but just as worn out and experienced as my backpack.
