On The Sidewalk
By Hiba Siddiqui
Published on Friday, February 24, 2006
I look around and cannot help but notice the marked absence of backpacks being sported by our student population. This observation astounds me. After all, we are on a college campus where students must need to take books, notebooks, pens, papers and other such school supplies to class. All of the above cannot possibly be comfortably carried to and from class on one shoulder. I mean, these items get too heavy for even a two-strapped backpack. Oh my God, can it be that these students have -- gasp -- chosen to make a fashion statement over actually being comfortable? Oh the blasphemy! These students have made fashion a priority over comfort and, maybe even, over academics. I cannot help but beam with pride at this shift in priorities and at the emergence of the Louis Vuitton messenger bags, brightly-colored totes and Longchamp carryalls. While the disappearance of the backpack has not spread to our male population yet, I anxiously await the day that men boycott backpacks in favor of the man-purse. Until that day, I will have to be content with the progress our female population has made and will have to put my own Hello Kitty backpack into storage because it is obviously not en vogue any longer (I'm not sure it ever really was). Today is a memorable day in that your very own "On the Sidewalk" columnist has taken a lesson from these backpack-less prima donnas strutting their stuff on the pages of the Mirror. Touché, readers, touché.