Stef, if your bag is a black hole, then mine is the mother of all black holes

I used to be able to carry these dainty little bags that can fit a coin purse, a small cellphone, a small pack of tissues, a comb and nothing else

Now i have 5 of those kinds of bags inside my real bag

My friends joke that I carry a refrigerator inside my humongous bags. Well, they may be almost right. Let's see what you can find inside my bag everyday:

 -         my violet diary (you never know when a brilliant thought might hit you)

 -         my Starbucks planner (which I almost never use but still feel the urge to put in my bag)

 -         my work notebook (which is 3 inches thick

 -         my kikay pouch bag (which has 3 little pouches inside to sub-divide all my stuff, namely, beauty products, medicinal products and sanitary/hygienic products)

 -         my “National Bookstore” pouch bag (which has a gazillion pens, markers, highlighters, post-its, a sharpener, an eraser and a pair of scissors)

 -         my “mommy” wallet

 -         my techie pouch bag (which has my Jurassic PDA aka ebook reader, chargers, USB cables and blank CDs)

 -         my token book/books (currently, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Alex Garland’s Tesseract)

 -         my Starbucks commuter mug (even if I seldom go to Starbucks)

 -         my jacket (you never know when it’s gonna get chilly)

 -         my snacks pouch bag

 -         my sunglasses, reading glasses, keys, and fan

 -         oh, and occasionally, an umbrella

 
Okay, I admit I am a woman obsessed. I’m obsessed with ball pens, post-its, drawstring pouches, gadgets, coffee and I carry these little obsessions wherever I go. I keep promising myself that I will downsize, but I cant bring myself to. What if someone suddenly needs to charge their phone? Or I get stuck somewhere without a book, pen or paper? And if I suddenly have to overnight somewhere, what would I do without my kikay pouch?

So I guess I will still choose a huge bag over cute little girlie bags, even though I sometimes look ridiculous lugging around a backpack when I’m wearing a skirt, trudging along that enormous money-eater called SM Mall of Asia

A friend joked that this is a reflection of all the emotional baggage I still carry around. Riiiiiiight. Hah. But that’s a whole other post altogether.

So if one day you might need a USB cable to plug in your mp3 player, or a post-it to write a note to someone, or mouthwash to freshen your breath, just look for the small girl with a literal burden on her shoulders. I am not selfish with all that stuff I carry around. Okay, maybe with my toothbrush.