Hermit crab lifestyle

Carrying your home on your back can be hard work. Students of many levels experience this phenomenon, but I think grad students living off campus take it to an extreme. In the age of electronic everything, a number of my textbooks are available on-line which allows me to live out of a backpack and lunchbox. I generally refuse to stay on campus for dinner and try not to return to campus in the evening since I study well at home. Others in my class travel with multiple bags for exercise clothing, other books, breakfast and lunch and dinner, and the variety of other junk people carry around when they don't know when it might be feasible to leave the building. If we really could invent some sort of portable shell which would allow us to curl up and nap securely on campus, I don't think some of my class would even bother to rent an apartment.