Sometimes, paper just isn’t enough. It can be decorated and drawn all on to appear amazing, but it is still just a sheet of paper. Bland. Plain. Boring. Paper can crinkle, crumble and tear. If it gets wet, you’re done for. So instead of paper, what is there to scrawl the outrageous images in your mind on? The walls? The desks? Other people’s hands? Well, how about a backpack? It’s always with you at school, and everyone can get a chance to admire the artwork on it.

Joann Sagaral is only a freshman, but the seeds of creativity have already sprouted in her mind. She used acrylic paint to design two people onto her backpack, one screaming at the other. “Sometimes, the mind’s creativity leaks and you just get bored of writing on the same material, paper.” The characters are truly hers from a story she wrote that started off as an essay for a school writing prompt. She later extended it, formed two characters, and then brought her characters to life onto her backpack.

Senior Keysha Massey’s backpack is decorated with so many bright colors that it’s hard to tear your eyes away from it. The colors help tell the story of her fun and bubbly personality.The backpack originally had colored checkmarks on it, but when Massey saw another girl with the same backpack, she decided to change things up. “I wanted it to be colorful, something I can see every day and not get tired of looking at it,” she said.

Anthony Jimenez is a senior who has also transformed his backpack. It was once black, but now there sits a monkey pushing aside two clumps of trees that are miniscule in comparison. The monkey is his own creation and accounts for more than just looks. Jimenez said, “When I was younger, I was always running wild in the streets, so my father called me Monkey.”