Backpacks and bad backs

I have been shopping around for a new backpack for a few weeks and its hasn't been easy. A few years ago I bought myself a backpacking backpack for longer trips, when I was first considering what to get I took to reading all kinds of reviews of bags and tips for how to pick the right one. It amazes me how we all think that just walking into a store like Target or Walmart is all you have to do but there is so much more to it.  Sites like  Out Door Places and Gap Year have guides for helping you pick out the right one. But it was on my way home when I saw a kid from the local Public school walking home with his backpack hanging halfway down his back that it occurred to me that there are too many people out there who don't know how to wear a backpack properly.

One of the worst things that you can do is wear a backpack on a single shoulder. This has been shown to cause your posture to be off balance because of the extra weight on one side. There has been much debate about if weight is a major factor in causing back pain. I'll admit that a heavy backpack no matter how you wear it is bad for your back, but wearing it properly can be less bad if you want to say it that way.  When you wear a backpack lower on your back the straps pull into your shoulders more and the leverage makes the weight of the bag more noticeable, when you wear a backpack properly even the heaviest of bags don't feel all that bad anymore. The proper way to wear a backpack is to pull the shoulder straps so that it rests nicely on the upper back and you are able to stand up straight with proper posture without the bag sliding down your back.

This is just a small back to school tip that I thought I would share since there are too many students walking around with their bags on wrong, and there is no reason to ruin your spine so early in life.

Packing

It astounds me even to this day that after so many years of packing for camp I still find it difficult to pack up and go home.  I mean seriously I have been packing up my duffles every year for the past 11 years, why should this be so difficult to do?  All year I have been going to different places for the weekend and never fail to be able to fit everything that I need into my little backpack, an yet here we are in a week I will be flying home and can't seem to figure out a way to fit all my junk into my duffle bags.

My biggest fear when ever its time to pack up and fly is that I will get to the check in counter at the air port and see those red numbers on the counter light up only to tell me that something from my bag will not be joining me on my way home.  For the past week I have spent everyday looking at the closet and playing almost like a middle school gym class picking who will stay and who will go.  But alas I have reached the point where all the things that I love most and want to come with me are still in the closet waiting to be packed, and keep looking at all those clothes wondering will I have the space and weight capacity to bring them all home.

Airlines have made it so difficult to travel for extended periods of time.  Last year we were able to bring 2 bags on the plane each weighing 50Lbs (23KG) and this year I am allowed a single bag weighing 50Lbs. I will be away from everything that isn't coming with me for 2.5 months.  This is a very long time and to know that I can only bring X amount of tops and bottoms and shoes, is stressful!  I have narrowed it down to the essentials but I'm sure that I'm going to have to take these essentials and break them down to their barebones.

I think the most surprising thing is when you actually realize how much stuff you own.  When you sit in your house or apartment or where-ever; everything is put away nicely on the shelves or in the closets, but when you have to pack up and move suddenly you are like "where did all this junk just come from??" There is also a sense of emptiness when you pack up everything and still have a few days till you leave. Right now everything has been packed up and I'm still in this apartment for the next few days and there is just a whole there when you look at the blank walls and think I may never come back here.

At times I'm glad to be moving on with my life, but then at the same time I feel like I would like to have a little more stability in my life, it would just be nice to not have to pack up and leave every year.  Maybe one year this won't happen anymore and all my clothes will have a home and packing will only be for a few days here and there. Until then I'll be packing.

Sense of Entitlement

Entitlement - To give right or claim to.

This summer has been a major eye opener. I have learned many things both about myself and others, but there is a one thing that has been bothering me these past few weeks.  In the post before this one (Growing Up) I spoke about my experience working at a summer camp this summer and in this post I am going to continue following with this idea.

The one thing that kept coming up while I was in the camp for those two weeks was the sense of entitlement that every staff member just seemed to have.  I don't understand why every person on staff thought that they had rights to everything in camp. My job was to print t-shirts for the camp, from the time that I got there I had over 300 camper t-shirts to print, over 200 staff shirts, plus an additional 150 staff sweatshirts and for the older kids in camp another 100 sweatshirts to print. Now considering each of these shirts have a front and back meaning they have to be printed twice because you can only do one side at a time the numbers are double; making it 600 camper shirts, 400 staff shirts, 450 staff sweatshirts (they had a front, back and sleeve) and 200 sweatshirts. Two weeks to print 1,650 shirts seems like a lot of time, but there are other things that have to get done in order to make these shirts happen.

I get asked all the time, "how long does it take to make a shirt?" Well there are a few answers to this question, A. 5 minutes is the screen is made and on the press ready to go. B. 10 minutes if the screen is made and not up on the press ready to go. C. 6 hours if the screen is not burned (made) yet. D. 48 hours if there is no screen on the drying rack waiting to be burned.

The only answer anyone ever hears is A and so the comment that always follows is "so if it only takes 5 minutes to make a shirt can I just give you a shirt to print on?"  I am pretty sure that no one ever thinks maybe EVERY PERSON on staff has made this request! And just because you are on staff does not mean that I have to do it for you.  What bothered me most was when staff would show up in the silk-screening room and ask to see what I'm working on, and then proceed to ask if there were any shirts laying around that they could just print something on, or they would bring a shirt that they had gotten and demand a new one because a mistake was made on theirs (things like the ink running together or wearing off).  I felt bad for them, but there really is nothing that I can do for them.

Off the topic of what I did in camp, there was one night at a staff meeting where the heads of the camp announced that there would be a curfew for the staff. Everyone was out raged, but from the short time that I had been in camp I noticed that this was a necessary measure.  Alas that night when I was heading back to bed at 3 am (curfew was at 1:30am) I noticed many staff members hanging out outside the bunks.  They felt that they were above the rules (with my position in camp curfew was over looked for me) but then in the morning not a single one of them was able to wake up for work, clearly this was a necessary measure! It seems that people just need to learn to grow up and get over the feeling that they are entitled to everything because this is not the way to get through life.

Growing Up

This summer I had a very interesting experience.  I met some amazing people and at the same time some very not so remarkable people, who at the time I thought there was nothing to learn from them, but now looking back there is so much about life to learn from both types of people. I think we focus too much on the amazing people that we meet in life and all the scummy people that we meet we just push to the side and never think about again, but they are some of the people that teach us about growing up.

This summer I met a very interesting person and found myself in some very interesting situations that I think have opened my eyes a little more to the world.  You see I know that I myself am not an easy person to get along with, but when I was forced to work with another of myself I've realized that it is not fun.  While I do like to be in charge I have a way of knowing when to back down; for the last two weeks I was working with a girl who didn't know her limits.  While pushing yourself beyond your limits is a learning experience, there is still a point when you have to take advice from someone else and stop. The girl I worked with just pushed and pushed and she ended up running herself down and wouldn't accept that she had gone too far. Learning to stop is all apart of growing up, but I think this is one lesson she was not quite ready to learn.

I've been told that I care too much about what others think of me. But there are so many times when I just feel that I really don't care at all what people think of me. My biggest problem is when I get to the end of things, its those last few weeks of things that I just let everything go and have that "I'm never going to see you again" thing going.  Perhaps this is not the best approach to life. It really is that I just get frustrated too easily with life. This summer was a very good portrayal of what happens when I get pushed too far. I have been working at the same camp for the past few years and this summer was the first time that I actually really think that I will not be going back.  Every year I say this year will be the last, and yet I keep going back, but this summer my limits were pushed beyond what I can handle.  It must all be in our heads that I just can't see myself doing anything else, after all since 2002 I have only spent one summer away from this camp.

The way that the new staff was treating any one in authority and especially the way that the girl I was working with treated anyone in a position of authority were the straws that broke the camel's back. I know that I have been in the position of hating my superiors but I always listened to what they had to say and did as I was told but to see the way that these 17 year-olds were treating their superiors I was in shock.  We were at a daily staff meeting when it was running late someone stood up in the back and said to the meeting leader, "you have 5 more minutes."  What nerve do these kids think that they have? I feel that we are losing the appreciation we used to have for things.  That everyone just seems to feel that they are entitled to the things that they have. I might just dedicate a whole post to self-entitlement.  But this one is about growing up.

I was having an interesting discussion with a fellow staff member about growing up and when we think that we grew up. There is no set age, no one can say that every 20 year-old is grown up and no one can say that every 15 year-old is not. Because everyone is different. I know that by the time I had hit 9th grade I really grew up. There was a sudden sense of realization that the decisions that I was making would effect my life, and the decisions that I made that year have shaped all the things that have been happening in my life until this day. I am very greatful to my younger self for making those decisions even though in recent years things have not always been the best.  It has all been a learning experience and we all just need to hit the ground running and stop being afraid of taking advice and working with others.  We're in this world together must be for a reason.

Its Not For Me

Last night I was at an event in Tel Aviv in honor of the holiday of Tisha B'Av (the 9th of Av).  At this event there were various speakers, Rabbis and such. Now I know that we are all leading very busy lives, but it bothered me that there were so many religious girls who came late, sat in the front and were on their cell phones.

I feel that we are taking this constant contact a little too seriously.  And it is starting to just come off as rude.  One woman sitting behind one of these girls told her to put it away because the light from the screen was bothering her.  I feel that it should be common courtesy, you came to listen to this guy speak shouldn't you be listening?  If he is able to turn off for a few hours, surely you can too. Perhaps this is just the problem with the instant generation  Its not like when you are in school and you do not choose to be sitting there without your beloved cell phone. When you are a consenting adult and you decided to come to a lecture, especially if you are going to sit in the front row you should be paying attention.  I'm not saying any of this to convince myself that it is a bad habit because I know that it is and I am trying to cut back.  What are you doing to try and cut back?

ABC ran a very interesting article on the topic.  Sad to say that we may need someone else to help us curb our addiction to cell phones because just as one can be an alcoholic one can be addicted to using their cell phone.  I once heard a Rabbi speak about cell phones. He said that if you go one day without your cell phone on you and you still feel it vibrating or reach to your pocket to check then you are addicted. Looks like we're going to need some sort of rehab.