What Is In My Tech Bag - First Day Of School Edition

Have you ever wondered what a computer science student brings to school? Well I am here to let you know! 

This of course is what I am going to bring to my first day of school, and the contents of my bag will certainly change over time and depending on what classes I have that day. But for now, this is what is going to be in my bag!

The first and main item in my bag will obviously be my laptop and a laptop sleeve. I currently have a high performance notebook that is currently running Windows, but judging by my classes and general curiosity I might be changing the system to Linux. Right now, I do not know which version of Linux I will be downloading, however in the past I thought about putting Linux Tails or even Kali Linux, but I ultimately decided to wait before changing my system. If you are interested in Linux yourself and want to learn about it, I recently found a site that has 15 free eBooks on Linux, which I recommend checking out. 

The next item in my bag is a wireless mouse. Typically, you will see me using a trackpad more often than a mouse, simply because I am used to it, but for some reason I have a really strong feeling that I will slowly move onto using a mouse more and more while I am at University. Who knows, maybe I won't end up using it that often. 

The next thing I have in my bag is an essential for all students no matter your major or age, and that is an external storage device in my bag, so I am able to backup all of my files, transfer files etc. On top of having a large external hard drive, I always have a USB on my key chain. It doesn't matter where I am going that day, I will always have a USB on hand because you just never know, and it has certainly been extremely helpful and convenient to have with me.

Then, I have two adapters in my bag. The first one is an external number pad since my computer does not have one and if I ever need to be typing a lot of numbers it'll go by much faster. Some extra cool things on my number pad is that it provides me with two extra USB-A ports, and a large SD card reader as my laptop only has a micro-SD reader. Another adapter that I have is one that has 3 extra USB-A ports and at the end an Ethernet adapter. In all honesty, I am not sure how often I am going to bring that adapter to class. It is just a handy tool for when I am at the far end of my house and need to plug in an Ethernet cable to get any wifi.

After that I just have small items in my bag like my phone, a charger, external battery, books, notebook, calculator, my pencil case, agenda, keys, wallet, umbrella, headphones, etc. Writing all of this down makes it feel like I am bringing a lot of stuff, but I think it is an appropriate amount of stuff especially since I am the person who would rather be over prepared than under prepared. Plus, I think it can be nice to be over prepared, because all of the small extra things I had became helpful to not only myself but others. Is someone's phone dying? Thats okay because I have a mini key chain cable. Did someone forget to staple their essay? Again that is okay because I own an adorable miniature stapler that I keep in my pencil case.