Write a narrative that has the form of a list embedded in it.

I found inspiration at an airport security gate, where I realized that every traveler in front of me carried a laptop. Here was a device in which every person kept their business and personal life, and yet I didn’t know of any traveler who planned for the inevitable moment when their computer failed. That would happen to me, eventually, and I needed contingency plans.

At first, I just packed an extra Phillips 0 screwdriver, a repair disk, and an extra hard drive. Computers always break at the worst possible times. For many, that means finals week. For me, that meant the middle of a trip in China, where I could not trust a Chinese repair shop with my identity. Not too soon after, I added a two millimeter flathead. Not all screws are the same – eyeglasses have even smaller screws, and my eyeglasses fell apart in the middle of a Vermont forest. I repaired them over lunch.

I get odd looks for these screwdrivers. People today seldom repair their own things, and electronics and eyeglasses belong to the domain of specialists, so a traveler in an airport poring over a gutted laptop is a rare sight. I admit, most people would not repair a laptop in an airport, but most people also forget to set up internet relays beforehand to visit banned websites in foreign countries. Yes, I am a rare and unusual species of traveler, but I have my contingency plans.