According to the University System of Georgia enrollment reports for the 2015-16 fiscal school year, there were a total of 77,263 students enrolled at Georgia State across all campuses. This includes fall, spring and summer semesters and undergrad and graduate students.
The total number of students who participated in study abroad programs for the 2015-2016 school year was 1,010, or approximately 1.3% of the student population at Georgia State. This number is most likely so small because students would rather choose to stay in Georgia to work and make money over studying internationally and not making money.
What does this say about our generation? Does the need for “securing the bag” inhibit us from taking advantage of opportunities?
When it comes down to a scenario that’s along the lines of ‘do something and not get paid against doing something and get paid’, students will pick the latter. If you search up the phrase “securing the bag,” one of the first things to appear in an article titled “If ‘securing the bag’ isn’t on your 2018 agenda you’re f—— up in a big way”.
Chelsea LaFrance is a student at Florida A&M University who runs a braiding business to secure her bag. She began the business in her junior year of high school, but the summer before her freshman year of college, she had to stop braiding because of the physical pain it was causing her.
“I knew I had to take a break when it was taking a tremendous toll on my body,” LaFrance said. “I was taking about five or six appointments a week when I started feeling the effects because I was doing hair almost every day or two heads a day which would take all day.”
There is nothing wrong with wanting to secure your bag. However, I feel like people do it for the wrong reasons.
It seems like half the reasons students are working so hard to secure the bag is so they can buy something to show for it and post it all across social media.
The other half are students who need to work to survive and to secure their future. They work their tails off so they can invest in a better life for themselves. Sometimes, this comes with a price, like dark under-eye bags and 5 hours of sleep.
Securing the bag culture might be toxic in some ways, but it’s basically a way of life now in today’s day and age.
“I think securing the bag is a great wave because it causes people to work and make their own money,” LaFrance said. “However, I feel like some people can take it too far and want money so bad and forget about other things.”
Overall, securing the bag culture has its positives and negatives. Students are working hard to better themselves. But in doing so, they’re missing out on opportunities like studying abroad and instead overwork themselves to the point of physical pain. It’s a coin toss whether securing the bag is a good or bad thing. Just know yourself and do what’s best for you.
