Rollin'

For a while now, I’ve hated skateboards on campus, and my only reason is that I hate the noise of them on the textured concrete. It’s a loud, irregular sound which puts my teeth on edge. I would never divulge this feeling to people who ride skateboards, because of course they aren’t doing anything wrong by being on them. I simply have a personal problem, which it is in no way their responsibility to fix.

I’ve been carrying two textbooks, a lab manual, a lab notebook, a spiral-bound notebook, a laptop, a laptop cable, a stapler, a day-planner, post-its, pens, pencils and so on every day for school in a backpack, and it finally caught up with my lower back. This scared me enough that I went to an office supply store with my dad.

“How may I help you?” The lady droned.

“Do you have rolling backpacks?”

“No…” there was a long pause. “We have rolling briefcases, but that won’t work for you.”

“Er, we’ll check them out.”

“Aisle 18,” she said, skeptically.

We found a rolling backpack which would work just fine, and purchased it.

When I got to school the next morning, with all of my stuff tucked away in my rolling briefcase, I realized something horrific. It makes the exact same sound as a skateboard does on the concrete.