First Day of School

For as long as I can remember, the first day of school was nothing compared to the week before, when the long quest to find school supplies had commenced. I loved shopping for supplies. Binders, pens, pencils, erasers, trig sets, and oh those beautiful coil notebooks. I had a bit of an obsession with empty, coil notebooks. Sometimes, I’d even convince my parents to buy me one- just to have it. It was never on the supply list, but that didn’t stop me from trying.

The first day of school was always chaos. Getting up early, making breakfast, making lunches, gathering everything in our backpacks. I was never organized enough to do that the night before.  Further to all of this, my mom always insisted that a photo of us be taken, minutes before the bus was to arrive. With our lunch bags in hand, we’d stand their patiently as she ran to find the camera, which always was lost in the abyss of the house. These photos at the time always felt weird and awkward, but looking back, they truly marked milestones for both me and my brother.

Being a country kid meant that we had to leave 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to arrive on our road due to the size of the driveway.  By the time the photos were taken and kisses exchanged, we’d be running, backpacks swinging from side to side, down the driveway to get to the bus, with my mom shouting GOOD LUCK!

As I walked my dog this morning, kids and parents passed me on their way to their first day of school. Full of anticipation and intrigue I would imagine, or perhaps fear and trepidation. Either which way, I miss those first days of school and the running down the driveway. And, as a salute to the start of a new school year, I bought a pack of pens yesterday –and found this old picture. Yes, that really is me. But more importantly, check out my pack of pens, colouring book and that super sweet couch.

Happy Thursday.