Back To School, Back To School

By the way, the title of this blog ABSOLUTELY MUST be sung in the Billy Madison voice...

It’s Back To School time. This probably isn’t too much of announcement to most of you. If you’ve set foot in a Target or Wal-mart lately, then you were probably blasted with all sorts of Back To School advertising, sales and stuff! When I walk through aisles of new backpacks and lunch boxes, I can’t help but catch a little bit of the Back To School fever.

When I was younger, say junior high school age, I distinctly remember being really excited to start school in the fall. Starting school, for me, meant new school clothes and the possibility of new friends or a new adventure. I particularly remember starting the 7th grade. I moved to a new school so I was faced with the prospect of finding new friends or surviving junior high alone. I started school with the idea of slightly reinventing myself. My Back To School wardrobe that year was a little more mature and a little bit different than anything I’d ever picked before – or, at least, I thought so. I loaded up on knee-high socks that year. At the time, I thought I was ROCKING. I have since learned that knee-high socks in Utah in August generally amount to sweaty torture. In addition to all my wardrobe dilemmas, I was tackling all the nuances of junior high school that all 7th graders face. For example, picking out SEVEN classes. From those classes, I had a seemingly huge variety from which to choose – languages, crafts, arts, drama, etc. So, long story short – the prospect of making all these decisions was exciting to me and that made starting school exciting.

My junior high years are long behind me now. But, school has been at least a small portion of a lot of those years since. School will probably continue to be a part of my life for many years to come – considering the fact that it takes me four times longer to finish anything than other “normal” people. But, I digress. My point is that, even though I’m kind of “old hat” at the school game now, I am still surprisingly excited to start classes here soon. Call me crazy. In fact, in a week or two, I’ll look at this post and I’ll be calling myself crazy. At that time, I expect to be bogged down with homework and really dreading going to my Philosophy class once a week… Crazy probably won’t begin to describe my brain at that time or any time between September and December. However, right now, I am still excited about starting school.

I find myself wondering why. I mean, I no longer get myself a Back To School wardrobe (although maybe I should – what a good excuse to buy new clothes!). I haven’t really established any wonderful, long-lasting friendships as a result of school in quite a few years. Anymore, school is just another thing for me to stuff in my schedule and an AWESOME opportunity to spend a lot of money! Yet I’m excited anyway and I still don’t know why…