I used to wake with back pain. From what? I did not know. I struggled through my morning routine, too sore to even bend down. But, I carried on with my life as per usual, swinging my backpack upon one shoulder as I had every day for the 12 years.

    After a while, I began to accept a life full of excruciating backaches. Then one day, as I walked through 200 building, I saw someone two-strapping their backpack.

    My first thought was something along the lines of “how odd” followed by an epiphany. My one-strapping was the source of my back pain!

    I decided to make a major life change. I abandoned my one strapping ways for the more practical two straps. My life has never been the same since.

    Suddenly everything was better. My backpack was lighter, my grades better, my friendships stronger, the air sweeter.

    For 12 long, arduous years, I have carried the weight of my schoolwork on just one shoulder (the left one, if you were wondering). But now, in my last year of highschool, I have seen the light. I have discovered why there was a mythical second strap on my bag and I am better for it. My only complaint is that it has taken me until the twilight of my schooling to figure it out.

       But you, dear reader, don’t have to make the same mistakes as I did. Try it out. An extra two seconds of work pulling on the second strap is worth the years of back pain you will suffer later.

     “I don’t care if it looks bad, my back is dying,” senior Niki Abdollahian said.

      Before high school, one can get away with one strapping with almost no consequence. But once you step through the gates of Monte Vista, you are laden with books, notebooks, folders, calculators, pencil cases, planners, erasers, water bottles, textbooks, various food items, and even the stray sweatshirt.

  “I have to take out papers [from my backpack] every week so it doesn’t kill my back,” Abdollahian said.

      The average high school backpack weighs anywhere from 18 to 30 pounds, which is about the weight of a toddler. Carrying around the weight of a small child on your back is detrimental to your well being. School is stressful enough without worrying about becoming an 18 year old with a cane.

     I implore each and everyone of you to change your ways, there is still time. I promise you, the grass is in fact greener on the other side.

    Proponents of one strapping argue that it’s infinitely more efficient.

    “…One-strapping is easier to do since I literally only have to swing my bag over my shoulder rather than take the time to put both my arms through the holes,” senior Lauren Wenger said.

    I know that it is more convenient to wear just one strap when you are constantly taking your bag on and off or maybe you think you look really cool with one strap, BUT backpacks were made to be worn on both shoulders.

    That’s why there’s two straps.