Tell me Y: I’ve been packing up my troubles in my old kit bag

Up until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent a lot of time on the road. Apart from working as a digital producer with CBC News in St. John’s, I was lucky enough to have another specialty with the company: a trainer. I delivered courses and did other projects (coaching work, development, etc.) with teams across the country.

That meant going on the road for a few stretches, and over the years, I got pretty good at keeping things light. I kept my work stuff in a backpack, and in lieu of a suitcase, I often used this:

I called this orange bag my dinner companion, as I would (as I did that evening at Pearson International Airport in Toronto) put it in the opposing seat as I scarfed something down.

I still have the bag, except now it’s my workout companion. It’s the one I tote to the Ches Penney Family Y here in St. John’s, as I can shove everything I need, including my size-14 sneakers, into it.

The orange bag is a great little road warrior. I learned over time to minimize the number of things to take. I became very practical about actual needs, and repeated experiences made me a better travel planner. I’d like to think I was helping with reducing my carbon footprint, although I would argue that COVID turned out to be a much bigger effect. From 2020 onward, I taught more courses than ever, and almost all of them were done virtually and remotely. That’s a conversation for another post.

I still have the same backpack, too, by the way. It carries my notebooks, daytimer and often the laptop I’m using to write posts like this, and some bigger projects I’m dreaming up. You can call that my coffee shop companion…