The Items in Bailey Owens’ basketball bag shows her personality and the type of person she is.

(Editor’s note-Hoof Prints staff recently checked out the purses, lockers and cars of students to see how the contents of these spaces give insight to the owners)

 MADISON GREATHOUSE – Hoof Prints Staff

Shoe strings. Ball shoes. Deodorant. Razors. Water bottles. Jerseys and more.  The typical contents of a girl’s basketball bag. But are there any stories behind the items? Can a bag tell a lot about a person?

Bailey Owens is your normal 16 year-old junior in high school. She wakes up in the mornings, grabs her slightly heavy duffle bag, heads to basketball practice, goes to school, comes home, does homework, eats, packs her basketball bag for the next morning, and goes to sleep.

Bailey has practice at 7 each morning, except on game days when the team gets to come in at 7:30. She has been playing basketball since she was in the second grade, where she played ball with a few friends and classmates at Upward Bound in Blytheville. Ever since then basketball has just stuck with her. She now plays for the Lady Mustangs. But what’s in this duffel bag that she carries around all of the time?

Shoe strings

Of course Bailey has shoestrings in her bag, she’s a ball player. They’re not just any shoe strings, they’re pink with a meaning behind them. Bailey explained that the team wears pink shoe strings in honor of breast cancer awareness for the month of October.

Razors

There can only be one explanation for razors to be in Bailey’s bag. “I carry a razor in my bag just in case I forget to shave the night before. I can’t go out and play with hairy armpits because that would be embarrassing,” said Bailey.

Water bottles

Why would someone keep water bottles in their bag? Wouldn’t that only be taking up space? Bailey explained that she keeps four or five water bottles in her bag just in case she gets thirsty after practice and has nothing to drink, that way she can just take it to the water fountain and fill it up. “I used to have a water bottle collection in my locker in the gym, but the cleaning lady threw them all away,” she said.

A lucky picture

Bailey carries in her basketball bag a picture that she drew in the 9th grade of a group of her friends. She said that the picture is hilarious and it has each of her friends drawn that describes their personality.

So why are the contents of Bailey’s basketball bag important? Just by looking in the bag, it is very obvious that Bailey is a prepared, slightly messy but at the same time organized, artistic, and comical person. It is also obvious that she is athletic and dedicated to what she does. They say a picture paints a thousand words, but it’s safe to say that a bag can tell a story.