We just set down our 90 pound-plus Jansport backpacks and we have to tell you, our backs are killing us. Well, not exactly killing us, but we can paraphrase former President Bill Clinton when we say, “We feel our pain.”
The unfortunate problems that arise from being organized in our hustle-bustle university environment are inevitable. It’s part of our upbringing to lug mega-luggage around for hours. We are trained from Kindergarten through high school in the fine art of weighted transport.
The recent Daily Forty-Niner article “Loaded packs loaded with problems” did little to alleviate the burden of our lower back strain. We spend umpteen hours a day toting textbooks the size of sofas, laptops, multiple spiral note books, pens, pencils, calculators and every other unmerciful ton of crap we either require for classes, or simply don’t think we can live without.
We need a lot of stuff to make it through the academic day. At times, we carry far more than we’ll ever use during the course of a course. However, it’s just about the time we decide to lighten the load that we find ourselves without some important piece of junk, like the notebook with our “due-today” assignment that’s sitting on the coffee table at home watching Oprah.
We wish we could survive on the well-intentioned advice from “Dr. Douglas Poff from the Advanced Wellness Center in Long Beach,” but it just isn’t that simple at Cal State Long Beach.
While our campus is beautifully landscaped, it isn’t designed for roller backpacks, especially when we have to make the trek to the upper campus from the netherworld of the Daily Forty-Niner Dungeon. We must concur with the article and “frown at this alternative.”
Just when a student gets on a roll with the roller, they hit the pyramid-like stairs. There isn’t time for more than a snap decision if class started two-minutes ago. This is where we typically make the hasty choice to disregard the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s signs in most warehouses that advise us to “Lift with your legs.”
In fact, it’s more likely we won’t even think about such warnings when we’re in a hurry.
We’ll usually hoist the tonnage straight off the ground and sling it over our shoulder in one graceful, acrobatic motion.
Doing so can cause more painful damage. Not only is there a danger of injuring one or more of the shock-absorbing disks between our delicate vertebrae, but we might clobber the person scurrying up the stairs next to us.
That’s why most students who make the dreaded journey from the bottom end to CSULB’s hilltop are the ones with noticeable slouching shoulders and hunchbacks resembling Quasimodo of Notre Dame fame.
Nearly as impractical as rolling luggage on our lovely campus are the tips offered by kidshealth.org. One tip on the website is to “Use your locker.” We aren’t so far removed from our wonderful high school careers to wonder, “Huh?” Where are these “lockers” of which they speak?
Of course, there are some lockers at CSULB. There’s a bank of about 20 or 30 for rent on the lower floor of the University Student Union next to the bowling alley and a locker room for art students.
One of us tried that rental tactic his first semester, only to have his locker infiltrated by some thief before the end of the semester.
When it was reported, the manager replaced the old lock with a new one. Pffft! That didn’t ease his angst over losing the textbooks, comprehensive semester notes for finals, and personal items in the “secured” rental box.
Although it might not be the best solution for many, leaving some things in the trunks of cars can be a useful strategy.
We say the trunks of the cars, because leaving valuables in the passenger compartment is a bad idea. Student valuables, such as re-sellable textbooks, are too tempting to would-be car burglars.
Probably the best advice given in the ‘Niner article was by human development major Jerald Allen Jr., who apparently plans his day better than most “by minimizing what he brings to school on a daily basis.”
One useful tip on Kidshealth.org is to “strengthen the stabilizing muscles of your torso, including your lower back and abdominal muscles” through various combinations of weight training, yoga and pilates.
We’re going to try this, possibly when we are Super Seniors and the new $70 million Student Recreation and Wellness Center opens in around three to 20 years. That is, unless they decide to put in a tanning salon.
It’s the nature of being a student that we must learn to adjust and adapt to campuswide traveling woes for our choice of attending The Beach.
In the meantime, it looks like we’ll just have to bite the straps on our Ninja Turtle and Hello Kitty backpacks and find a good chiropractor to treat our “microtrauma.”
