It's so strange to essentially spend your entire life going to school, and then to suddenly be pulled out of that environment. It's like eating a cookie every day for seventeen years, and then suddenly never eating a cookie again. (OK, kind of a weird example. Maybe I'm just craving a cookie.) I've been out of school and working since January, but for some reason it's really hit me since the new school year has started to kick back into swing for so many people.
The last August I spent not getting ready for school was when I was 4 years old. Every August since good 'ole 1994, I've spent my days buying school supplies, comparing schedules, buying books, listening to the rumors about my future teacher(s), stocking up on my favorite brown bag lunch snacks at Sams, and buying back-to-school clothes (sigh...I miss that part the most.)
Now that I'm out and working, the daily functioning of my life is so different. There are many, many things I love about not being in school anymore, but there are some things I miss too. For example, the other day I was walking back to my office from my lunch break and walked by a Staples store. I caught a whiff of that smell...you know what I'm talking about: a combination of paper, erasers, and other school-ish things. It made me feel nostalgic as I thought back to the days, circa 2001, when my mom, sister, brother, and I would cart ourselves into the Staples/Office Depot frenzy "to get school supplies."
It was a big deal. We each had our special school supply list in hand that they had available at the front of the store in those little slots. (Looking back, I realize that's kind of weird...) There were things that were always on the school supply list: wide-ruled paper, no. 2 pencils, a binder/"trapper keeper" (who thought of that name?), eraser(s), glue stick. Then there were the random things you'd find on the list each year depending on your grade: protractor (who the hell ever used this? It sat in my pencil pouch untouched), special markers, $120 graphing calculator, graph paper (ew), personal pencil sharpener. Since my brother, sister, and I are each equally three years apart in school, we were all distracted by our needs that specific year. When my sister was scoping out college-ruled notebook paper, my brother was choosing his favorite pencil box. And then we'd come home with this:
Sad, now that I probably won't ever go back-to-school shopping. There are endless "supplies" at my office now, which is kind of funny if I had told that to my 8-year-old self. An endless supply of pens and dividers was a foreign and slightly exhilerating concept. I could've stocked my fake school classroom we had in the attic with endless staplers and highlighters.
Oh, and by the way, I found my old protractor hidden away in my closet when I was moving out in December. I threw it away, and guess what? It.felt.awesome.
