Aug. 24: Back to school

For grade school, what are some of your best and worst memories of starting back to school each fall? What about high school? College?

Grade school—five good back-to-school memories:

1. All those new school supplies!
2. Seeing who else would be in my class
3. Wearing all my new clothes
4. Meeting my teacher, seeing my classroom
5. Getting new workbooks—I always loved to go way beyond our assignments. Unfortunately, that over-achiever-ness didn’t last through my entire education.

Grade school—five terrifying back-to-school memories:

1. Surprises, like showing up to a different teacher than I expected, or having my arch nemesis in my class
2. Doing something stupid that would draw attention to myself, like calling the teacher “Mommy”
3. Seeing other kids wearing the same new clothes
4. Bullies
5. Getting in trouble for talking when I should be listening—so embarrassing.

I think my back-to-school memories for high school are pretty much the same. College was unusual, because on the quarter system, there was a first day of school every few months.

College—five good back-to-school memories:

1. Being back in the dorm after vacations. I loved a lot of things about dorm life, but mostly enjoyed having my friends being nearby.
2. Starting every class in each new term with an “A.” It took a week or two to give up on keeping that “A,” but it felt good for that little while.
3. Seeing who would be in each of my classes each new quarter. This wasn’t always a good thing, but usually alright.
4. Finding a nice big hole in my schedule perfect for daytime naps. Even better? Having the 3:00 hour free to watch Days of our Lives.
5. Every new quarter meant I was closer to graduation

College—five terrifying back-to-school memories:

1. Not being able to find classrooms… being late… sitting in the wrong classroom but not realizing it
2. Having to get from one end of campus to the other in the ten minutes between classes (eventually I learned to just skip one of the classes every day—smart, no? No.).
3. Buying insanely expensive textbooks (not so much terrifying as a huge pisser)
4. Getting the reading assignments on the first day of classes and realizing there aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up with reading for all of my classes that quarter. Yes, this happened.
5. Finding out an ex would be one of my professors for an entire quarter. Yes, this happened too.

Please, please, pretty please share your back-to-school memories in a comment or your own blog.