Back to school!
Okay so I'm a couple days late with this. This is day 3 of back to school. However it hasn't really started yet and day 1 was sort of a write-off. Anyways.
So back to school is always a fun, exciting time for me. There have been very few years in my life, since I was 5 years old, when I did not partake of some kind of back to school ritual. I have been a student almost constantly throughout my life, with fewer than 15 of my 34 years having been academically enhanced. Then, 4 years ago my daughter entered the system ... and I have worked in academic institutions for about 7 years, so I've been peripherally involved with the whole thing from that aspect also.
Without a doubt, buying supplies is the BEST part of going back to school. Pens, pencils, pencil boxes, binders, and BOOKS. Although lately I've been much more pragmatic with my purchases, and I feel quite resentful buying new books since they are ridiculously expensive. I bought my 2 textbooks online at 1/3 of what they would have cost me at the UBC Bookstore. And J gets most of her stuff at school still...probably by next year she'll be more involved with choosing which supplies she'll use all year, but for now she still passively accepts what is given to her, for the most part (except for the cool Crayola erasable pencil crayons this year).
I have mixed feelings about the return of students to the university. It's a huge campus but it gets very sleepy over the summer. April 30, the students just disappear, and September 7, they magically reappear, flocking and hording all over the once-peaceful grounds and facilities. Commuting sucks (well, not as badly as in previous years), parking sucks (ditto), lineups at all the food establishments and pinball machines. And yet, as someone pointed out to me on the forum when I was bitching about it last year, without them, I wouldn't have a job. Yeah, thanks a lot. I moan about it, but I do enjoy the increased energy. I like being surrounded by thinking people, and even though the young people seem stranger and stranger to me every year, ultimately they're all there to think. So bring it on!
So back to school is always a fun, exciting time for me. There have been very few years in my life, since I was 5 years old, when I did not partake of some kind of back to school ritual. I have been a student almost constantly throughout my life, with fewer than 15 of my 34 years having been academically enhanced. Then, 4 years ago my daughter entered the system ... and I have worked in academic institutions for about 7 years, so I've been peripherally involved with the whole thing from that aspect also.
Without a doubt, buying supplies is the BEST part of going back to school. Pens, pencils, pencil boxes, binders, and BOOKS. Although lately I've been much more pragmatic with my purchases, and I feel quite resentful buying new books since they are ridiculously expensive. I bought my 2 textbooks online at 1/3 of what they would have cost me at the UBC Bookstore. And J gets most of her stuff at school still...probably by next year she'll be more involved with choosing which supplies she'll use all year, but for now she still passively accepts what is given to her, for the most part (except for the cool Crayola erasable pencil crayons this year).
I have mixed feelings about the return of students to the university. It's a huge campus but it gets very sleepy over the summer. April 30, the students just disappear, and September 7, they magically reappear, flocking and hording all over the once-peaceful grounds and facilities. Commuting sucks (well, not as badly as in previous years), parking sucks (ditto), lineups at all the food establishments and pinball machines. And yet, as someone pointed out to me on the forum when I was bitching about it last year, without them, I wouldn't have a job. Yeah, thanks a lot. I moan about it, but I do enjoy the increased energy. I like being surrounded by thinking people, and even though the young people seem stranger and stranger to me every year, ultimately they're all there to think. So bring it on!
posted by infobabe | 7:47 a.m.
2 Comments:
when i was teaching, professors used to always joke how wonderful campus life would be without students mucking up the place :p it really is like a different place, even during short breaks like at spring break.
i can't believe how picky darth jr. is about clothes for school :o
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