School Rules!

Yellow buses. Back-to-school sales.  Clothing discounts.  Sighs and smiles, depending on how one looks at this time of year.

📷 by UzebekIL on pixabay

Back to school starts on different dates for different states.  Some parents are relieved - kids do need structure.  Some kids will be happy too, whether they like the social aspect of learning - or both.  Some kids will dread it - whether it’s the social aspect or learning - or both.  Same difference. 😁🤷

Even years after attending school, and for that matter college, I still enjoy looking through back-to-school supplies displays:  the choices of pens, notebooks, folders.  And backpacks.  Oh yes, lunchboxes too (do they make those anymore?)

Being poor I could never get a lunch box.  I don’t remember having a backpack either until college.  There were also expensive notebooks I would love to have had.  But nonetheless I did get basics - pens, pencils, erasers, paper folders, crayons, colored pencils, and later years highlighters.

📷 ringsphoto on pixabay

Not only was there an array of beauty in the colors, but the smell of new supplies still take me back to the good memories of school.  Freshly sharpened pencils with a whiff of wood scent.  Opening a new box of crayons - mmmm - wax colors raising their pointed ends, calling for me to color with them. Ha!                                                   
If I was able to get a new outfit or two, that was always both exciting and awkward, wearing it the first day, getting used to the feel of the crisp fabric.  And the shoes!  Ouch!  After a summertime of mostly bare feet or flip-flops, there were always those darn blisters to deal with when school started.

But there I was in a new outfit, carrying my plain notebook with colorful folders and ruled paper.  If I was lucky I would also have the vinyl zipper bag to contain the pens, pencils, erasers and whatever else I could stuff in there.   

The books would be assigned from the school.  I do love the smell of books.  I always enjoyed trips to the school library to get more books.  I loved to learn and I loved to read.  Still do.

📷 geralt on pixabay

Being shy, I was not particularly happy to be in school around people.  But I was glad to be there for learning.  Teachers liked me and were good to me.  I did have a few friends, but was never popular, never in a club, or a study group.  There were times I missed a lot of days but despite that I got good grades.  For years I would keep my notes and information I learned from each grade.  The material is gone now, but the education remains.

📷 by Skitterphoto on pixabay

I don’t know why school supplies make me happy.  Maybe they were like friends during those early years as I struggled to learn to socialize.  We all get attached to things, even though many are fleeting.  Perhaps the supplies are symbolic of something within me.  I feel a sense of control, of having a bit of power.  I can use these tools to gain knowledge.  These tools are instruments to attain some worth, to find a place of belonging.

📷 ringsphoto on pixabay

A sense of empowerment.  Wow!  Thinking of this has me wondering what it would have been like to be a teacher.  Teachers are powerful.  They have a strong impact over so many lives.  How unfortunate they are not remunerated adequately for their services.

So here we are in these times - today - back to school. 

📷 Dystopos on flickr

How many supplies do kids need now, when there is so much technology in use?  Guess some of the tools will remain despite computers.  I think that is a good thing.  There is something much more deeper and stronger in what is gained when you write with a pen or pencil on paper, than when you type on a keyboard.  It’s as if there is a harmonious connection among the written tool, the paper and our inner selves, a collective unconsciousness of sorts.  Maybe it even goes back to cave men drawing on the rocks!  An awareness of being among others, animals, nature...a whole world.

📷 Alexas_Fotos on pixabay

Writing this down gives me a sense of being.
I am here.
 (Rinnnnnngggg!!!!)
Oh, there’s the bell.  Gotta go!  😉
Theresa M