No Back To School For Me

I can smell fall in the air. Walking the dog in the morning, I am noticing the air is a little crisper and the leaves are starting to turn, some have even fallen. I stepped on my first few crunchy ones this week.

I LOVE this time of year and the back to school feeling that goes with it. However, for the first time in a very long time I am not going back to school. And it feels odd.

My school days stretched from pre-kindergarten aged 3 up to 18 in the final year of secondary school. Then I went straight to university in the September and thus the academic yearly cycle continued for another four years.

Then I graduated. And decided to take a year out doing something I had always wanted to do - working in a special needs school. It was awesome. And it meant I still went through all the motions and seasons of a school year. Now, I have finished working at the school and am going back to working as a dietitian.

But I must admit, I feel a bit lost. 

I just bought a regular year diary fill rather than an academic. I just cannot get my head around the year starting in January and ending in December.

Here's what I will miss about going "back to school."

1. Buying stationary -  This was probably the most exciting thing to do towards the end of the holidays. I was a stationary addict and had to have a new pencil case every September. And usually a new school bag too . . .

2. New uniform - I can still remember moving to a new school aged 9 where the uniform was very old fashioned in the colours brown, beige and bottle green. Yup, it was as ugly as it sounds! But when I put on that new scratchy woolen beige jumper, God it smelt good. I can still smell it today and I am immediately transported back to my bedroom, putting it on for the first time, anxious but excited.

3. New workbooks - when you wrote your name on the front and start off with extra neat handwriting - such a nice feeling!

4. Enthusiasm to learn - I always concentrated so much better in the first term back, wanting to get off to a good start, doing all my homework in time. By Christmas however . . .

5. Feeling older and wiser - with each new year you had that little more responsibility and felt that bit more grown up than the year before.

6. The run up to Christmas - having a Christmas birthday, this was always the most exciting time of the year for me. I loved having that to look forward to as the days got shorter and colder.

Oh well, guess I will just have to make new fall memories instead!