Every year, seniors buy childhood-themed or cartoon-themed backpacks for the year. Most people in the class of ‘26 have participated in this tradition with all kinds of backpacks. Some popular ones at Oakmont High School are Disney princesses, “Cars”, and “Spider-Man”. I think this is a really fun tradition that starts off senior year well. 

Senior year is filled with lots of fun activities, like senior sunrise, senior ditch day, and more. Childhood-themed backpacks are a fun way to start these activities.

This tradition helps bring out the inner child of all the seniors right before graduating and moving on after high school. Also, it creates opportunities to make new friends and communicate with your class by connecting with them, having the same backpacks or liking theirs. Senior year is looked at as the year you can calm down, so adding fun traditions, like senior backpacks, make it less stressful. 

For me, this year has really gone into figuring out what I want to do for college and where I want to go, so I have been very stressed out, as have other seniors applying for college. Doing these fun activities has really helped slow down the year and make it fun. Senior backpacks take you back to your first years in school, when we throw class parties for every holiday and go on fun field trips. 

These backpacks also help students express themselves, picking their favorite TV show or movie from their childhood. I picked the “Spider-Man” backpack, and I knew what backpack I wanted since freshman year because I loved all the movies growing up and was really excited to wear it.  

These backpacks are a great start to senior year, helping everyone connect and come together during their senior year. Everyone should keep this tradition going to kick off their senior year.