Well ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time year again where back to school sales are on every shelf of every store. Parents dragging their children to go on shopping spree for supplies and clothing.
I often see social media posts of frustrated peers ranting that their summer vacation is over and that they’re off shopping, at orientation or scheduled pick up.
Well I sympathize and relate with most people on loathing the tiresome and ridiculous season that is “Back to School” so here are some of my experiences that irritated the crap out of me when I was in high school.
1. Shopping with your parents
If there was anything I hated (from elementary-high school), it would have to be shopping with my parents. Especially when my mom had to take me shopping for clothes at JC Penny’s or supply shopping at Office Depot. Clothes shopping was awfully annoying, especially when my mom bought a surplus of pants and shirts, when in actuality, the clothes I got on Christmas were enough. I also hated arguing about what fit and what didn’t and the whole concept of shopping for clothes for back to school was pointless. School supplies weren’t much of a biggie, just the lines were irritating and following our teacher’s ridiculous syllabi.
2. Going to orientation/ I.D. and schedule pick up
*If they mailed in your schedule, this does not apply*
Oh boy when that letter came in the mail, the voicemails from school, or the email that parents receive about schedule pick up or orientation you knew damn well that you had to be there and you couldn’t escape it.
My freshman orientation in high school (circa 2012) was one of the largest freshmen classes in our school, so it was packed and we got introduced to the zany and complexity, via. long boring speech, of attending the school for over an hour. Having near 1,000 students in a crammed auditorium not a great idea, especially if we fall asleep or f--k around.
I attended a high school of 3,000 (plus) students so the schedules were easily messed with or lost, plus you couldn’t switch out class until the first week of school (which I’ll go into depth later).
I recall my senior year, when my dad and I arrived to pick up my schedule, after going through the long line and stations where we had a checklist (i.e. for transcripts, athletics, clubs, I.D.'s and medical files) to be stamped, only to have the counselor tell me they lost my schedule and couldn’t stamp our checklist. So we had to haul all the way to the counselor’s office to print a new one and go back in line to have our checklist stamped.
3. Knowing which teachers were bad or awesome
Throughout most of my high school career, I had the most amazing teachers, and some pretty awful ones. I was either informed by my friends or had lasted a good semester with that teacher to determine that.
Overall, whenever some of my peers post their schedules on Facebook or Instagram, I already could see the comments flying about every teacher with the load of appraisal or smack that would ensue.
4. Changing your classes
If there was a class in your schedule that you didn’t like, the folks at pickup would simply say “If you want to change your classes wait until the first week of school." When that time arrived, the line to the counselors’ office was that of a Death Grips concert line, spanning from lunch hour to after school. Two cons: you couldn’t get a pass and go during class and the counselors would sometimes be on lunch break, so you had to be there at lunch or after school.
5. The First Day
It’s sort of bittersweet of my freshman and sophomore year. I was more about exploring the campus and the seven classes. It really amazed me through every shortcut and pathway, plus it gave me a good reason to be late to a class. It was also frustrating to find a certain class, especially if some teachers or monitors would be yelling at you to get to your class.
When in class, there would be the usual rules and syllabus routine which was tiring and varied among teachers.
By Senior year; I had only five classes, knew my way around and really could care less. I was really apathetic to the first day routine and sometimes I would come late to classes I hated.
Most of all the mental countdown had begun; nine more months of school to go, look forward to the holiday breaks that came. But, when you’re back on campus that countdown stays with you until finals.
