As the class of 2026 settles into their final year at Emery, the hallways are filled with something both familiar and surprising: children’s backpacks. From Disney princesses to Bluey, seniors have traded in their usual North Faces and Jansports for colorful cartoon designs and nostalgic characters that turn heads.
“I think we’re all really sentimental right now,” senior Juliette McLaughlin reflects. “We’re thinking about the things we liked when we were younger, and carrying those with us into our senior year.”
For many students, the backpack choice is personal. McLaughlin, carrying a Spiderman backpack, explains, “Spiderman was my favorite superhero, I watched the movies for comfort. It just felt right to bring him back this year.”
However, the trend is more than just playful nostalgia; it reflects the strange liminal space seniors occupy between childhood and adulthood. “It’s very grounding,” Jake Blumrosen states. “We get to relive being a kid for one last year… it feels like a full circle moment.”
Four years ago, these seniors entered high school as wide-eyed freshmen, close enough to childhood to remember those backpacks from elementary school. Now, as graduation looms in the near future, they’re returning to that era, ending their time in school in the same way it began. The backpacks have become a metaphor for the nature of senior year: reflecting on the past while transitioning to the future.
Whether this becomes an annual tradition or disappears after this year is currently unknown, but seniors say the backpacks speak to the culture of senior year itself. “It makes us revert back to simpler times,” McLaughlin mentions, “We’re about to graduate and become adults, but this reminds us we’re still kids in a way.”
In a year defined by lasts; last days of school, last football games, and last school dances, the backpacks have become more than an accessory. They have become a symbol of transition. Seniors first walked into Emery as kids, but by June, they will leave as adults.
