Ghosts of School Years Past

In all the years I fought with the masses in Target at 3:30 pm on the first day of school, I never thought I would be saying this: I miss shopping for school supplies. (Of course, if you're REALLY serious about school supplies, you go to Staples or Office Depot -- which we have also been known to frequent on back-to-school shopping trips.)  In spite of the crowds, the expense, the arguments with the kids ("Why can't you use last year's scissors?  They already have your name on them!") and the repeated trip two days later when the teacher hands out the REAL school supply list -- I miss shopping for school supplies.

Of course, there are so many other emotions tied up in this memory.  School years gone, children gone, regrets over missed opportunities.  It seems odd that this one event can embody so many feelings and thoughts.  There is also this:  the beginning of the school year -- with its puchase of new packages of notebook paper (college-ruled), pens (blue or black only, please),  markers (washable), and unopened (and hence undried-out) glue sticks -- has the excitement of a fresh beginning, a new start, the chance to do better this year, stay on top of assignments from the very beginning, forge new friendships and strengthen old ones.

It's sort of another chance for all the resolutions you didn't keep after the first of the calendar year, with its excitement of a fresh beginning, a new start, the chance to do better this year, stay on top of assignments from the very beginning . . . well, you get the idea.

So, when does this wear off?  This feeling that the beginning of the school year is a new start for all of us, regardless of whether we are in school, or have children in school, or grandchildren in school.  I don't know when it wears off -- all I know is that it hasn't happened for me yet.  So I think I will take this opportunity to make a fresh start  and try to do better -- with family, friends, tasks and opportunities.  Might even write more than one blog post this year. 

I've got to make a trip to Target anyway, so I think I'll pick up a new package of paper (in any rule I choose) and pens (in any color I choose).  Might even stick a few school supplies in a box to send to the kids, who now do their own back-to-school shopping. Just for old times' sake.