How exciting

The bouquet of sharpened pencils. 

The smell of crisp clear air. 

The change in season. 

The excited (and sad) feelings of students getting ready. 

The end of Summer. 

The bittersweet taste of lost freedom. 

They are all signs of Back to School.

Back to School Song- Billy Madison 

(keep in mind, I'm not a huge fan of Billy Madison- but it is a funny scene.)

I, personally always enjoyed the back to school time. By this time every year, I was bored out of my mind. Sure I loved Summer, but I always had a great time getting ready for school. The family always went to Ptown to Clackamas Town Center to shop. We each got our own money to use and buy as much clothing as we could with the money provided. We were let loose on the mall and given a time to meet back at the car. I always felt odd having that much money in my pocket to start. For starters, I very rarely had money, let alone THAT much, and then there was also the fact that Portland is a big city and for an 11 or 12 year old, I was worried that someone would find out I had lots of money and come to steal it from me. That makes me laugh.

Anyways, I had a system. I would systematically go through the mall- start at one end, and walk through it, go in stores that were interesting, and when I got to the end. I would go up to the next floor (multi-level malls are awesome) and then do the same for that floor as well. I found that I usually bought most of my clothes in one or two stores- the big chains- JcPenny, Sears, or Macys or something, and usually on clearance so I could get the most out of my money.

Then of course, after 1 hour (when given 3) I was all done. I had gotten all the clothing I needed and was out of money. What do I do then? Well, I would just have to kill time.

On the first day of school, it was always exciting for me to get to my class(es) and see who the teacher was and if I knew any of my classmates. Such great, exciting feelings those first days are. I miss them.

And then when I went to college, the same feelings happened as I was getting ready to move to the new school and looking for a place to live. And the move day- so chaotic.

I truly look forward to the days when I have my own classroom and can set up the class the way I want and get to have those great, exciting feelings once again. I will be a teacher this time, but I will be excited to have my own class and see who my students are.

To all those who get the opportunity to go back to school tomorrow- Have fun. Make the most of the year. You start with a clean slate.