When I first laid eyes on my bright yellow and pink rolling backpack, I wanted to crawl into a hole. The thought of all the judgmental stares mixed with the discouraging words from friends made me sick. Honestly, I love standing out but what my friends think of me still mattered most.

The day I walked into school with my backpack with wheels, my cheek were turning red enough to show through all my brush, I couldn’t imagine dragging it behind me. So instead I used it as an ordinary backpack. When I was starting to work up the courage to wheel it, I asked one of my friends if it was weird. They responded in how incredibly weird it was and that I shouldn’t because I would look like a freak. I knew that I shouldn’t care what they thought. But my confidence fell away fast.  When the bell rang, I continued to use it as a regular backpack.

It wasn’t even totally up to me if I got a rolling backpack. My chiropractor had strongly recommended that I get it. So what was I going to do? Say I don’t want one because I don’t want to look weird, even though for medical reasons I should have one?

Finally, halfway through my first day with the new bag, my back and neck were killing me. I had to start using the wheels. I awkwardly took the backpack off my shoulders and waited to be judged. The heat returned to my cheeks and spread to my ears. I just knew someone jerk was probably whispering about what a weirdo I was. But I was wrong almost as soon as I took my bag off someone told me how they loved my bag as it rolled behind me.

That reaction was the last thing I had expected. I received compliment after compliment on how amazing my backpack was. Lots of people even said they were jealous and wanted one too.

Those small encouragements about my new backpack helped my health, happiness and confidence. I probably would have just reverted to my standard bag and messed my back up more if I hadn’t received compliments from random people in the hallway.

The school’s been focusing on acceptance a lot in the past couple years, especially now. School improvement lesson have really focused on acceptance and becoming comfortable in our own skin and at school. This was proof that we really are going in the right direction.

So thank you all of you that made me feel like having a roller backpack is cool. It meant a lot. Also, I’m truly sorry to the 87 people I have run over in the hallway.