Nostalgia is literally being carried around as many students are wearing the “senior backpack” trend. For years now, graduating classes have been using children’s bags as one final goodbye to their childhoods before stepping into the real world.

This phenomenon, mostly rooted in American schools, has roots tied back as far as the late 2000s. This of course is before it became a viralised internet trend in 2021. Most students are discovering it via TikTok and sending the idea group chat to group chat as an attempt to get involvement from their friends. On top of its social media origins, the trend has also been recognised on multiple news platforms, spreading fast among high schoolers in many ways as they work their way up to their final year.

“It’s a fun senior tradition,” said senior London Maith, who has a Sesame Street backpack.  “The idea is that you’re going back to being a ‘kid’ for your last year … I saw it on social media around my freshman or sophomore year and I’ve always wanted to do it. If my friends didn’t participate, I still would have.”

Of course what comes with this fun and nostalgic experience, is a downside. There is one major difference between the sizes of young kids’ backpacks and those intended for high schoolers. Children’s backpacks tend to have a lot less storage space in them, as well as they are definitely not built for the massive textbooks that high school students often lug around.

“I don’t plan on using it the whole year just because I have a lot of stuff for school and not everything will fit,” said Giana Medina, who has a Hello Kitty backpack. Aneesa Feghali, on the other hand, said she plans to use her Powerpuff girls backpack the entire school year.

Childhood memories can be especially significant in your senior year of high school. After this year, the graduating class will all follow their own paths.

With so much uncertainty within so many aspects of life, having a reminder of childhood memories can be comforting. Most of these backpacks have characters on them, often from kids shows or movies. “I chose Spiderman as my senior backpack because I had one just like it as a kid. I love Spiderman and I always loved the movies as a kid and I wanted to pick a character that resonated with my childhood,” said senior Rejan Rada.

“I chose the Powerpuff Girls because I loved them when I was little. I remember watching the cartoon in the morning on weekends when I was little,” said Ryanne Oseroff.

As the Class of 2027 begins to make their last memories of their high school career, it can get emotional. It is important to be able to look back to when you were younger and reflect on how far you have gotten, and then take that and think about how far you will go in the future.