In Defense of "The Big Bag"

I carry a big bag. Specifically, the GROSSE GESTEPPTE UMHÄNGETASCHE from COS.

It’s quilted, made from 100% recycled materials, and technically designed for a weekend away. I bought it in Paris, not long after I arrived in Europe and realized that I needed a real bag, a real big bag. Not the little Kavu sling I'd been getting by with. Something that could handle plans changing, cities changing, without falling apart.

Most days now, it’s just what I need to get through a regular afternoon if I leave the house.

I feel like I’m always about an hour from home. Plans change. A coffee turns into dinner. A late train turns into staying over at a friend's place. I rarely know at the start of the day if I’ll end it back in my own apartment. Packing light doesn’t really fit the way I live right now.

The bag holds books, some clothes, an extra charger, things from the drogerie to fix whatever the day might throw at me. It holds the "just in case" parts of my life. And that’s not something I'm used to.

Someone said recently, "That's a big bag! It must hold so much!" It is. But it doesn't mean I'm carrying around some big, dramatic personality with it. There’s this idea that if you carry a big bag, you must be loud, busy, commanding attention. If anything, having this giant gray bag has afforded me a modesty.

A big bag doesn’t have to be a statement. It can just be quiet permission: to stay longer, to carry what you need, to not have it all figured out when you walk out the door.