Back to School

For me, those three words never brought forth feelings of dread (summer is over) or worry (will I like my teachers?) ... but rather, Back to School (B2S) meant the most delightful and intoxicating assortment of new pens, new notebooks, new markers, new crayons, new backpack and paper clips and pencils and pencil cases and erasers and glue sticks and glitter and magnets and locker décor and book covers and ... I could go on for days.

To this day, 8 years out of the last classroom I ever sat in, I still get excited when B2S time comes around. I attribute part of this to my mother, a career teacher, who loves loves loves new pens, along with all other things school related. I remember being a kid and going B2S shopping and she got just as excited as I did about the newest additions to the beloved Trapper Keeper or the newest colors of ink pens (mom, it's pink!).

When I got my first office, a space of business and work that was all my own, it was just like B2S again. I went to Staples to buy the most fabulous pens and folders and paper clips and sticky notes and planners and all the stuff that makes me happy. I'm a designer so all the colors and patterns and whatnot just delight the hell outta me. I really think I could be that person who creates notebook covers all day long because I know the absolute joy of walking into a store and finding the perfect suits-me-to-a-T pattern on the cover of a notebook. I love that.

Lately, I've been trying to fight (or at least stand up to) the built-in consumer in me. So as B2S comes around again, I will walk down aisle after aisle of new, shiny happy school supplies ... I will pick up and examine item after item, wanting one of everything, but perhaps just buying the file folder I needed anyway ... and I'll buy it in electric violet with a lovely design on the front :)