The adventure backpack

In 1998 I was graduating from college. My dear friend Ariane had studied abroad for her junior year and invited me to join her for a trip to France Italy and Greece. It was my first trip abroad. And my second solo flight ever. (The first one was to Texas to see my brother.) My mom got me all geared up. She bought everything on the list that my brothers friend Reid had made. He had become a travel writer and had all kinds of travel guides and lists, including what to try to pack for a trip backpacking to Europe. So my mom got all of it for me. Including an eagle creek backpack with a mini daypack attached. I was 21 years old.

Somewhere along the way the big pack got lost. I have so many photos of me in so many places wearing it. I am amazed that I was able to carry all my earthly belongings in it to so many places. Including my wedding dress on the way to my wedding. I’ll have to find that picture! In my memory, I have the small pack on the front with the hanger of my wedding dress in a garment bag hung from one of backpack’s loops.

Now in 2021, this backpack is my eight year olds “adventure backpack.” Somewhere along the way I gifted it to him because I graduated to a turquoise Patagonia backpack with two water bottle holders. That big purchase was made for myself in about 2015. So somewhere after that my son received the eagle creek backpack, or at least the portion of it that remained. He named it, “the adventure backpack.”

He’s so thoughtful how packs this backpack. There are already a few famous stories about how prepared he is with the things that he independently chooses to put in his backpack. Like extra snack bars that he was able to offer a friend and the friends father when they had run out of the house without snacks on a hike. (his friends father also happens to have the exact same Eagle Creek backpack - the whole thing- and has such strong deep nostalgic connections to it and still uses it which I love.) And then there’s the time he had Band-Aids at a group play date and none of the parents did.

tomorrow he is going to an outdoor hiking camp. And you better believe the adventure backpack is all packed with his gear for the day. Just like my mom, I slowly gathered the materials from the list. It’s only as I am writing this that I can imagine how much thought my mom put into gathering all those supplies. Including what we know now as the adventure backpack. I gathered the supplies but he’s the one that packed them and organized them and made the final decisions. He’s the one that stayed true to himself when I tried to convince him to use his school backpack, a waterproof REI Backpack with two water bottle holders and all kinds of high-tech pouches and compartments. No! He would not be convinced. That is his school backpack, he proclaimed. This is adventure.

as I write this I am so glad and grateful that this child, my son, is so true to himself. So strong in his will and his resolve.

And finally, what inspired me to write this post. He is getting over a cold and I started having cold feet about whether or not I should send him tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain and thunder and be a bit cold. Part of me wants to keep him home to give the cold one more day to resolve. However he’s 100% himself except for this now lingering cough. And the fever it’s already gone 24 hours.

as someone who is developing and listening to my intuition more and more every day, I noticed how much I was craving talking to my husband about this. I so wanted his final word for us to make a team decision about what to do. But still, I asked for a sign. I am so tired but before I remembered I needed to post this blog, as promised to myself and to you, I sat here and looked through some old photos.

Scrolling through old pictures, i found a picture of myself from 2005. I had just gotten back from a trip to Paris. I stopped on the East Coast for a while to visit family before returning to Los Angeles where I lived. The picture was of my grandmother and I, my nanny. It is one of my all-time favorite photos ever. Do you ever zoom in to beloved photos to see if you notice new things? I did that tonight, so longing to see something new about my nanny or the then me. And as I zoomed in moving the photo around to different sections, I noticed something in that photo that I had never seen before. I had a bag with me. I zoomed in closer to see what bag it was. Oh my goodness, it’s the adventure backpack. There’s my sign. This boy will go to camp tomorrow with his adventure backpack. I am thinking of all the adventures that that backpack went with me on. All the places we have been together. And I’m thinking about all the experiences my son will help with his. All of the adventures.

thank you for reading this. I love sharing this with you.

good things, darling.