Reliving back to school
Despite the fact I haven't been to school in over 8 years, this time of year always gets me in the 'back to school' mode.
The first leaves are just leaving the trees, august is nearing its end and I've started to think more about pumpkins than beaches. (I blame the last one on the fact that I read far too many blogs based in America; the land of autumn pumpkin fans!)When I think of going back to school, it's high school that I remember most. Dragging my mum around every possible shop in Norwich to find the perfect back to school kit.The big three on my list: shoes, bag and pencil case.Endless hours spent looking for the perfect school shoe - had to be comfy, but more importantly had to look cool and have a heel slightly higher than allowed by the school. It must have bored mum to tears! Then imagine her disbelief when 3 weeks later I come home in someone else's shoes becuase we'd swapped for the rest of term...The bag was a whole other decision: satchel? rucksack? simple tote? tiny handbag so you had to carry everything separately? I think I was mainly a satchel girl, I still use them now, but I still have my red rucksack with the longest straps so it sat on my bum when I walked!The pencil case was the best part - I am officially a stationary geek. Pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers, compasses, set squares - I had it all. I could spend hours dithering between the ink pen or the gel pen and I'm pretty much the same now with art supplies. Don't even ask how many sketch books I've got in my cupboard, waiting for the perfect drawing to be worthy of filling the front page!Then there is the excitement of starting a new school year. Don't get me wrong, I've never had a summer holiday that was quite long enough, but I loved school! I loved that every year you were smarter than you were last year and you were going to be smarter again this year - progress!I miss that now I'm out of education! You don't get that sense of progress and moving on in quite the same way that you do in school. Knowing that even if this isn't your best subject/topic, you just have to get through it then you get to try something else - it isn't really an option at work, even if your job is project based like mine!I like this time of year, it's still my marker for a new year, probably more so than 1st Jan! So this is my back to school girl, looking exactly like I wish I'd looked each time I went back to school; organised, excited and super stylish.
And it's probably a good time to say thanks mum for putting up with my back to school demands (the less said about the second year uni duvet tantrum the better - cringe!) and I hope that if any of you have children going to school, that they don't drag you to every single shoe shop in town!