The Things I Carry

The first chapter of the novel The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, discusses different objects soldiers carried and the significance of these objects. As a student, I also carry things with me on a daily basis. Inside my bag, one would find several binders for my more important classes: one for English, one more calculus, one for physics, and one for chemistry. Overall, these four binders take up the majority of the space in my backpack but they carry the most useful information. One would also find a folder for each of these four classes and additional folders for my economics and public policy courses. These do not take up much space but they seldom carry anything of value to me; they are simply organizational tools. A graphing calculator is also nestled in my sack. This is used for three out of my seven classes and therefore is very useful. Pens, pencils, a Macbook, and gym clothes are also often readily available to me. All the belongings I carry weigh a total of twenty five to thirty pounds. Unlike the soldier’s belongings in the novel, the importance of mine do not correlate to their weight. My calculus binder might as well weigh a ton but I find my physics binder (it is much lighter) to be more important to me since I aspire to become an engineer. Also, my graphing calculator only weighs several ounces but is way more valuable to me than all my folders, pens, and pencils combined. Finally, the Macbook I carry is undoubtedly the most useful tool I use. If I needed to, I could almost survive in school using only this object alone.
Every day, I also “carry” many intangible things too. One of the most prevailing intangible objects is stress. Schoolwork, my part time job, and college admissions are all beginning to take their toll on my mental state. Every day, I must be conscious to complete all of my assignments to be successful academically; I hope this will help me become accepted into the colleges I have applied to. In addition to this, I must also make time to hold a part time job. Some days after school I am expected to work six hours which leaves little time to concentrate on academics. Consequently, I must be completely organized at all times making sure to take advantage of every free moment. At times, it feels like I am in a circus ring trying to juggle work and more work. On top of all of this, I must dedicate some time to my friends and family, of course. The constant planning going inside my mind is something I will never be able to “let go of”.