Does everyone’s inner child live forever? A high school student’s senior year is a pivotal moment in their life. It’s their last year before stepping into young adulthood. One of the annual traditions that allows seniors to embrace childlike behavior is getting a kids’ backpack.

Every year, either before or during the school year, seniors purchase their “senior backpacks,” typically featuring a show, cartoon, or character that represents their childhood. Ethan Yohanes and Kylie Wiedeback both chose a Spider-Man backpack, but the reasons behind their choices reveal more personal memories.

Yohanes explains how his memory of Spider-Man correlates to his first skateboard: “When I first started skateboarding in elementary school, I got my mom to buy me this really cool Spider-Man skateboard, and I kept it for like almost 7 years.”

Senior backpacks are constant reminders that you’re never too old to have fun. They also serve as a feeling of what it was like being a kid, because that opportunity might never come again.

Katie Vaughn describes how she shows appreciation for her siblings and family through her backpack: “It makes me very nostalgic of when I would watch these movies as a little kid with all my siblings and my family. I don’t get a lot of opportunities to just sit down and watch animated movies and actually enjoy it anymore.”

Additionally, Katherine Kelly also has a fond memory of their sibling that relates to their choice of backpack: “I wanted to have something to match with my sister because we’ve been really close, so I wanted to have something where we could like be the same but kind of different. So we picked Wild Kratts.”

As Vaughn and Kelly look back on their childhood, they remember the bonding moments they shared with their siblings. Their backpacks aren’t just shows or characters: they’re core memories they had with their family.