It’s that time of year already. School supplies on sale everywhere you look. Ads about sending your kid off to college. New back-to-school fashions on the racks.
And this year, for the first time ever, none of it means anything to me.
I graduated in June, and my career’s already on track, as I’m settling into my first real grown-up job. After twenty years of school, I am done with classes, unless I get all crazy and get into continuing-education courses. Which I might, but I’m not thinking about that yet. All I can think about is how I don’t need to buy another backpack or pencil case until I send kids of my own off to school. I can ignore the ads for a few years yet!
So, what’s your back-to-school outlook this year? Going back yourself? Sending kids off to a new grade?
I’m really looking forward to it. We completely restructured our school day this year, which means going from a 4X4 block back to a 6 period day. That means I get my seniors back! Wheee! It will be a hoot and a half watching everybody shift from 90 minute classes to 56 minute ones. Lots of curriculum re-writing going on right now. But I have my ideal schedule back, so I’ll do the work gladly. One of my former debaters just got hired as a new English teacher, which has some good long-term implications. All in all, I find myself anxiously awaiting the first day.
I’m ever-so-impatiently waiting for my son’s school to send out the list of what he’ll need to bring on the first day. School starts in three weeks and two days, and I haven’t been able to get his supplies ready and it’s making me antsy!
As for my son himself, he’s going into first grade and is very adamant about not wanting to eat lunch in the lunchroom every school day for the next twelve years. Other than that, he’s looking forward to school, mostly.
I go back to school September 28th after two years out of college. I am quitting my job either the 22nd or the week before, and I can’t wait. I already have my backpack (custom made at L.L. Bean in school colors), my sweatshirt, and a closet full of comfy jeans. I just need some new pens, a notebook, and some new shoes and I’m golden.
I am very much looking forward to going back to school. I’ll be taking very interesting classes, getting back with my friends, and just enjoying life much more than I am now, working all summer from 8 AM - 7 PM. I’m also looking forward to rubbing my straight A’s from last semester in my advisors face.
I’ve also got an awesome dorm room - huge, on the tenth (highest) story, on a corner (windows on both sides!), facing Boston and the Charles River. And the parking lot where my beloved car is, so I can keep an eye on it.
I’m not looking forward to my second year as a Guidance Counselor as I was this time last week. The school board transferred our principal last Thursday.
IMHO, moving people around that close to school starting (we start Aug 3 :eek: ) is just plain cruel to staff and kids.
The fall semester starts on August 28th, at which time I’ll be taking my 6th class since starting grad school two years ago. I’m having much more fun now than I did as an undergrad, and I look forward to the start of each semester.
I’m moving in two weeks, so I won’t get to revel in the back-to-school goodness (or worry about how much my books will cost :D) until about a week before classes start.
Trying to get a job, move out and get my financial aid straightened out, in that order. All three are actually looking much better today than they were yesterday; I got a lot done, which I’m rather proud of, but I should’ve gotten off my ass and done it a lot earlier. I sort of made a loose plan and assumed it would work itself out, and then I found some stuff out that I realized made my plan completely unrealistic, which I should’ve seen coming. Anyway, I’m bustin’ my ass on it now, and hopefully I can get out of here by the middle of the month, which would give me a week to get my shit in order before school starts.
I’m nervous about how it will all affect my grades, though. I’m just barely within field goal range of getting into a UC, but if working cuts down my grades I’ll have to settle for a State, which stinks cause I’m a chemistry major and CSUs are really better for the liberal arts. But you do what you gotta do.
I also am nervous about redeveloping my social life. Part of my agreement with my parents for being able to stay with them since my military discharge while I go to school was that I couldn’t see anybody for non-school-related things while school was in session, so from the beginning of the semester to break and from the end of break to the end of the semester I’ve been completely sequestered for a year. What’s a little scary is I’m socially lethargic now that it’s summer and I’m free to do whatever I want, so it will be difficult to adjust back to setting my own schedule again.
I just picked up a few missing items from the dreaded school supplies sale, now I just need to buy a planner and a few backup pencils and Im ready to move back in!
Unfortunately, however… I called my new roommate to talk with her the first time… and got her father who barely spoke english and wrote down my name wrong. She then called me back during work, and when I tried calling the house again noone picked up. I hope I didnt use up all my roommate luck last semester!
Flodjunior is entering seventh grade, the last year of elementary school here. Totnak starts first grade. For the first and last time, they will attend the same school, and I feel sorry for the teachers already
School starts on the 21st, and we’re pretty much ready. I started work today so I wanted to have all the shopping stuff out of the way. A few more things need to be marked with names, but that’s about it. They’re both antsy and bored and looking forward to having something new to do all day.
Strangely, I’m not at all sad that “my baby” is starting school. Now, ask me next year how I feel about “my original baby” starting junior high… :eek:
My oldest is starting college this fall. She has her iMac laptop, and most everything else she needs. Interested in seeing what all disappears from the house when she does. Taking her down to school - 2 hrs away - on 8/16. Tell me if this sounds retarded to anyone else: she has to be there at 8 a.m. for required meetings and stuff, after which she can move into her dorm at 1 p.m. WTF are her parents supposed to do for 5 hrs?
Actually, probably parent - singular, as one of us will probably stick around to help the HS jr register that same day.
The youngest will be a sophomore - she went clothes shopping yesterday and gladly modelled several new outfits for me.
My daughter is starting 6th grade and middle school on Thursday. Thursday! The 3rd of August! Summer vacation has become a joke. I’ll be glad next year when SC finally pushes all the public school start dates back to September where they belong.
On a semi-related note, I got 5 different Christmas catalogs in the mail today. Seems Christmas season starts right around the same time school does. Ho, ho, ho.
Youngest Blucher is still in Daycare; can’t wait until he can go to school. (Those prices are seriously denting our income) Eldest Blucher enters grade 4 this year. I just need to hide his DS/Gamecube/PS2 games until his summer book reports are done.
School means I get to go back to having just 60 minutes between dropping off eldest Blucher at the earliest time they will accept him and to arriving at work on time, utilizing such commuter-friendly roads as Rt 3 East, towards the Lincoln Tunnel. (Bite Me, Mr. Phelps!)
MIT sent me back my application with a note attached, stating thus, “Haha, cute.”
Instead, I’ll be headed to Gatech in the fall. It was my 4th choice, which makes it interesting since I’m scrambling to learn anything at all about it. Orientation was fun, because I was the only psychadelic cowboy to be seen. There were no goths, punks, flamboyant gays, metalheads, or anything besides white or Indian kids in khakis and polos.
It all should be one hell of an experience, basically. I’m mostly excited to be living in Atlanta, and hopefully taking challenging classes for the first time in my life.
And my dorm is sort of like yours - relatively large and on the top floor in the corner - but instead it overlooks I-75 and downtown Atlanta.
I’m going back if I can ever stop procrastinating on signing up for classes–at first I couldn’t be bothered. Then, because they made us switch PINs, I forgot mine and got locked out of my account. Got it reset (and switched my PIN back to what it was before–system ain’t that smart :P). Now there’s some BS hold on my account (I owe nothing, and the dates on the hold are 1999 and 2007–in 1999 I hadn’t even heard of the school yet :/) and I’ve been putting off calling up to fix that–Dad keeps getting on my case about it. I was going to do it Monday, which I’d assumed I had off, but turns out I didn’t, and for some reason I don’t want to do it from work. THEN I’ll get to sign up for classes. Good thing I don’t have to worry about electives this year.
I also need to check my printer, as last time it was plugged it it seemed on the fritz. I hope I don’t have to buy a new one. On the other hand, I hope I do–free ink I do have a dorm room though–one of the ‘big assed singles’ as I like to call it These rooms are about as big as the doubles on campus, but are actually singles (AFAIK all the large singles are on the top floor rooms in their respective buildings, so while the floor space is about the same, there’s a sloped ceiling to contend with). I can’t wait to get this year the hell over with though–it honestly scares me. My last in my major, though I’ll still need one more classes to have enough credits to graduate.
school! school! yay!
That means… I get to be in plays and go to classes and be with my friends every day and sing in the choir and play journalist on the newspaper and… and… notebooks and pencils and learning all kinds of stuff I never even knew existed and… being busy all the time and… and a new dance show, even!
don’t worry. I’ll be less excited about it about two weeks into the actual school year.
What’s a psychedelic cowboy?