Kiddos 2 and 3 came home from their first day of school with the same project. It’s a paper bag (either a personality bag or an all-about-me bag) which the kids are supposed to decorate and then fill with five things that tell others about them.
Kiddo#3, who has more personality than any paper bag can hold, will do his tonight. Kiddo#2 had to do hers yesterday, and although she too has lots of personality, she had a hard time finding objects that represent herself. She put in a Warriors book, natch, but for the rest…?
My Patient Husband came to me later and said, “How many dice does this guy have in this bag?” because, as it turned out, he and I share a brain and had both been thinking about what we’d put in our own bags.
For myself, I’d only come up with, “Wow — this bag is totally empty.”
One of the moms at the bus stop said, “We did ours wrong. You were supposed to draw pictures on the bag, but instead we used stickers and clip art.” I replied, “Well, that does say something about your personality, doesn’t it?”
In a fictional universe, I’ve decorated my bag with pictures of angels. Since this is supposed to represent my personality, the drawings are a bit sloppy and the top of the bag got ripped, so I created a border of dragonfly stickers and music note stickers around the edge to cover that up (yes, even though stickers are contraband.)
Inside the bag, I’ve put a fountain pen and a journal as my first item to represent my writing. I’ve got a picture of my Kiddos, and a picture of my Patient Husband as items two and three. Item four is a rosary because it represents prayer and the way faith links together the different aspects of my life like beads on a chain. And then I don’t have a fifth item, but that’s a metaphor for how I always feel like I fall short.
In the combox, tell me what’s in your personality bag and how you’d decorate yours.
Assuming the bag never leaves my sight:
Girl Guide enrollment pin, probably the one from Ranger Guides since I lost the very first one, and the camp license pin I earned then. It was an important part of my life and the camp license was to the same standards adults use. Card with the older Promise and Law, and the Guide Prayer.
My first Engineering Iron Ring, the one Grandpa gave me, even though now I wear a larger one. Card with the Obligation and Kipling’s Sons of Martha.
Wedding ring. Picture of family and kids, and parents and in-laws.
Pencil and notebook.
On the outside, a picture of a clock with no numbers. Time to do everything and nothing. Attach moveable hands, probably three or four.
Space to write notes on the bag.
SD card filled with old favourites and ones I haven’t read.
That’s favourite books, in DRM-free form.
My prayer books, photos of my kids and grandkids-lots of those-small plant, calendar broken into 1 hour slots from 9 to 5, a guitar (miiature of course), financial records which need to be reconciled and a telephone.
A camera, a horse (a small representation one will have to do), the picture of my husband and son fishing together, St. Anthony prayer card, notebook with pen attached (to keep the total under 6).
I’d swap the paper bag for a reusable one, and decorate it with sketches of flowers from my tiny garden.
*representational
Wow. This is hard. 5 things? Trying to figure out which 5 things to use. I mean, do I go with the book or the badge, the magazine or the toy car, a picture of my cat or the pen & paper?
I guess I would put in pen and paper, a SF novel, copy of National Wildlife, Handguns, and Popular Mechanics.
On the outside would be pictures of cats (probably traced since I can’t draw), stars, cars and police badges. (Hey, no one said I couldn’t put the other stuff on the bag, instead of in it.)
Heh, I may swipe this idea and put it on my LJ. 😉
Beautiful post.
My bag would include a bottle of making bubbles, to remind me to breathe. I would have a flower to remind me of the Buddhist idea; that it is made up of sun, water, earth – that everything makes and affects the one. My third object would be a photo album of all those in my life who have my back. My fourth object is a flashlight to light my darkest moments. The last object I would put is a recording of infectious laughter.
I would decorate the bag with the following words: Serenity isnt freedom from the storm, but Peace amid the storm.
Awesome idea 🙂
My first thing would have to be my glasses. I misread one word and was horrified that a teacher would ask for a bag filled with LIVE things. #oops
I’d have an empty journal and an empty box of pens. Yeah.
A bottle of sublingual B-12.
Windchimes!
And the outside of the bag would be purple swirls and stars, with one little Horde symbol (from World of Warcraft), just a little one.
And glitter. And paw prints!!
Lots to think about here 🙂
The bag would be decorated, like that of your friend at the bus stop, with “contraband” items; if you’re going to tell me to be creative, dammit, don’t put so many restrictions on how I can do it!
Inside: a Brother Cadfael book, to represent my love of mysteries, the Middle Ages, and really good writing.
Picture of my husband and children.
A broken rosary – representing both my faith and my struggles with it.
Something about homeschooling and/or alternative education; maybe an apple in a weird shape?
A teabag – warm, cozy, Anglophiliac.
A photo album of my family: wife, children and grandchildren. Music CD’s: mostly Dvorak. Some good books: History, Science, SF and “Calvin and Hobbes”. . To represent my love of art, a copy of the statue of Isis from the Louvre. Some flowers from my garden. (I suppose weeds would be more representative). And, of course, “Cardcaptor Sakura”.