Wow, I so remember this day and all the pain and sufferring it used to bring!

After a summer of laziness, it’s time to get up early…AND take a shower…AND wear decent clothes…AND go to school??? For the whole day? “Can’t we just do a half a day for the first few weeks and ease in to this?”

The ride to school (or walk, as many of us did) was so long.

The walk up the sidewalk was too.

Inside, it still smells just like last year. “It’s gonna be a long time until next summer!”

What was that familiar smell? Looking back, it must have been a combination of books, bread baking in the cafeteria, and terror.

The first sight of a friendly face was such a welcome vision! “What did you do all summer?” “Nothing. What did you do?” “Nothing.” “School sucks!” “I know!” A little exchange like that took the edge off, and the next thing you knew, you were walking home from that first day and kind of looking forward to seeing your friends again on the SECOND day of school. After day three, you stopped giving them numbers and it was all routine again.

The top things I learned in school:

Be polite. It counts for a lot.
Don’t two face your friends. You can’t get far enough away to outrun the shame of it.
Try. If you make an effort, you’ll get help. If you don’t, you won’t get any sympathy for being lazy.
Be part of something. Don’t let it all pass you by.

Of course, I learned all these things years after I threw my last stack of school papers high in the air. If my time machine worked, I’d go back and do it right.