While in the shower this morning, I was going over in my head what could work as a proper blog post and I landed on what I carry in my pockets every day. There’s a joke that men’s pockets are basically a void while women have no pockets (although, they do get the privilege of carrying a purse without judgement: make it socially acceptable for men to have purses!). I am very lucky that my pockets have the capacity to carry without dragging down my pants/shorts, and without giving too much away, I want to say what I carry around on the daily.
What I Currently Carry:
Phone: This one’s pretty obvious, right? In 2024, who isn’t bringing their phone every single place that they go? Even if I wasn’t constantly bored and needed a distraction at random times, I use my phone for music, or if I’m driving somewhere new, I need a GPS. Shoutout the all the people that had to use maps to get around; I seriously commend you, because I would never be able to navigate and drive at the same time. I’m trying more and more to reduce my screen time and start living more in the moment, but it’s a slow process just as any addiction is. Like alcohol, you can’t go cold turkey using a phone, so I’m trying to ease off, but in the winter, there’s not much else to do. I don’t receive many texts or calls (I’m extremely popular, obviously), so I’m already one step closer to not needing my phone everywhere.
Wallet: This one was probably guaranteed too, right? It has some credit card/debit cards, cash, and gift cards. It also has my driver’s license, which I have to have anytime I step in the driver’s seat of the car. I also need it to buy alcohol, although sometimes wait staff just accept that I’m of age when I reach into my pocket to get my ID ahead of time. Fun fact: I used to have four Chili’s gift cards in my wallet before I used them all up.
Keys and lanyard: New Hampshire on the map of the United States is very small. In fact, New Hampshire is the 46th largest state by land area (to make it simpler in words: the 5th smallest state in the USA). All of this yapping aside, we don’t have walkable cities or towns. You have to drive everywhere, even if it’s just to the local Dunkin’. As of now, it takes me half an hour just to drive into the largest nearby “city”. City is in quotation marks because the population was 44,000 as of 2021, but the only other comparison I had growing up was Boston which I thought was a state, not Massachusetts. I guarantee my geography has improved since. Besides my car keys, I have a house key in case I get locked out. These two things are all attached to a Star Wars based Boston Celtics lanyard.
Chapstick: I always have to stay strapped with a Chapstick, especially if it’s dry lip season which is basically all of winter. I carry it also because my girlfriend has the same problem, although she insists Chapstick doesn’t equal lip balm. The issue I have with Chapstick is that whenever I use it, my lips just get more and more dry. Oh well, this mystery has no answer!
Airpods: Whenever you step into a grocery store or retail store of any kind, can’t you admit that generic pop music they have on 24/7 is horrifying? I agree. This is part of the reason why I carry my Airpods everywhere. As a music lover, I always listen to music at any chance I get, even if it’s a three minute drive from my local Dunkin’ to my house. Maybe I’ll decide to go on a run and need music. Maybe I just want to tune out the mundane sounds of my family (sorry Mom and Dad). You can never go wrong with Airpods. (Use this as a reminder to post my Spotify so people can see my tastes.)
What I Want To Carry:
Journal/Notebook and Pen: As a writer, I see inspiration in literally every aspect of my daily life. Sometimes I see something really funny or something relatable. Other times, I’ll get a random idea and need to write it down before I forget it. I want to start doing this instead of making a note in my phone as I want to cut down on my phone time (stated above). I saw a guy at a bar in Dublin one time that looked very cool with his mini notebook and I want to be him.
Book: Any book will do. One of my goals in 2024 is to read more books, hopefully an average of a book a month at minimum. I want to start bringing a book everywhere I go because I have a huge pile of books I’ve been meaning to read but find common excuses not to read. I need to just eliminate that mindset and go for it. Here’s to a much healthier and intelligent 2024. The first book I will be reading is a complete collection of short stories from Franz Kafka (The Metamorphosis is peak).
Apple Watch: I’m also trying to start being more healthy, and this might break the trend of “carrying” things, but I consider an accessory carrying. I enjoy tracking my health habits, especially since I do cardio every day. It will be a much easier system to track than inserting the data myself. I also just feel very fancy having a watch. I used to have a watch that said the time every hour and I got yelled at in middle school because I couldn’t get it to shut up.
Laptop: My entire life is on my laptop. Well, to be fair I have two laptops, but one is mostly designated for gaming. One is for writing, creating, designing, and school. When I say laptop in this case, I mean the writing one. I want to finally finish my novel this year, and that will require me to have my laptop on me nearly all the time. Who knows when I’ll have an amazing development that I can’t write about? Too bad, now I forgot.
Thanks for reading all of this. Normally I don’t do long blog posts, but if I have the time and idea in my head, I’ll work it out on the page. I’ll be organizing my Spotify account and Portfolio section on my website today, so look for that. There was also a slight change in the sports betting page, so look at that too. Also, if you’ve noticed, my Blog post photos are random photos from my camera roll. This is mostly to avoid copyright strikes and whatnot. Enjoy the photos though.