From 9th grade, at the very latest, I have always spent mid-August with a mandatory trip to the stationary store. It is often said that stationary shopping is considered cathartic due to the illusion of productivity, but for me, it genuinely helps me motivate myself and build my excitement and motivation up for the coming school year.

Over the years, my stationary needs have changed and evolved. I was someone who used to highlight every other word of my self-made study guides (thanks to Pilot & Sharpie), much to the amusement of my friends all the way back in high school. Since then, I have changed the pens I like to use, to even going completely digital for a while.

I eventually resorted to coming back to pen and paper though, due to the fewer distractions caused by social media and the Internet as a whole. Since then, I always had a little notebook at hand for manually written to do lists, and even evolved to planners. I found that planner buying itself can be difficult due to daily, weekly, monthly, desk, or even pocket-sized planners, but I've been a Kate Spade fan for the last two and a half years!

Even after graduation, I found I was not able to use my planner to its full potential, having purchased my first one after graduating with my bachelors, mostly due to the fact that I did not have as many assignments all at once. Needless to say, joining grad school was able to uplift my planner game to new levels.

As I am about to start my final quarter of grad school, it makes me a little sad to know that this will be the last time I stationary shop - for a while, at least. But hopefully, as always, it will help me get motivated to crush my final quarter.