September is approaching rapidly, and we all know that that means it is back to school season once again. Children are readying themselves for that strict schedule which consists of school, homework, and a set bed time. That overwhelming feeling of the walls closing in, and time running out doesn't all happen at once though, here are the six stages of back to school.

1. The realization that there is a very limited amount of summer left, and school is coming.

This is the stage that many teenagers realize that they have about three weeks to start as well as complete the four packets that they received for summer homework. For the youngsters, this is the time that a bed time is strongly enforced in hopes to get them back into a routine of some sort. Some teenagers consider participating in the whole set bedtime thing, but does anyone over age 12 ever actually stick to that? The sudden consciousness of school also brings about one of two feelings, either impending doom or total elation. Depending on the side you identify with this few weeks of summer is either spent counting down the days to be back with all of your friends. or grieving and freaking out about the breakout you probably have all thanks to stress and anxiety.

2. Finding out your schedule.

I can remember being a child and just waiting at the mailbox every day of August just waiting for that letter to arrive telling me which teacher I would have. Once I found out I would spend the afternoon calling all of my friends and asking what class they had; life was really great when it didn't matter if your friends had your teacher or not because you would still see them at recess and lunch. Fast forward to high school where you spend an entire afternoon at your schools disorganized scheduling day where you wait in a hot building to find out you don't have any classes or even the same lunch period as your friends. Even better, now that we are blessed with social media, we are able to find out that every single person we dislike is in our class, and/or got the teacher you desperately wanted but weren't blessed with. Fantastic.

3. Cramming in all the fun.

This is like a second awakening where you realize that you haven't done anything all summer and need to make memories pronto. Everyday consists of seeing someone new that you promised you would hang out with but never did until now. Basically, this is the time that you lose storage in your phone because of pictures, and you bank account drains faster than the days seem to go by.

4. Back to school shopping happens.

Among all of the memory cramming, you magically find time to go out and by pens and pencils that will eventually all be lost or stolen by Christmas break; lets hope that Santa will be nice enough to bring you more, otherwise you will be searching the hallways in hopes someone dropped something usable.

5. The first day comes.

It is time, the worst day of the year, the first day of school. On this day all children take a random seat and pray that someone they know and somewhat like waltzes in and sits next to them. On the occasion that this does happen, it makes the silly ice breaker activities, that every teacher seems to plan, a little easier to bear. This is also the only day of the year that the students are actually awake and feel somewhat well rested. I wish the lasted.

6. Back in the swing of things.

So you have successfully completed the first week of school, and enjoyed a well deserved weekend (that is totally full of homework because teachers say they have a "curriculum" to get to even though we all know that this "curriculum" will magically disappear on the days they don't feel like teaching). After that though you are totally back in the swing of things and it sadly feels like you have never left and your summer is just a distant memory.

I do have to admit, not everything about back to school is awful depending on if you are involved or not. For high schoolers, back to school means spending the first two months enjoying football games and getting ready for the homecoming dance. Elementary schoolers don't really have anything to worry about in general, I mean come on, they have snack time and recess. Sorry to the middle schoolers, I don't see anything great about being back to school; just try and make the most of it I guess.

Regardless of which boat you are in, or what stage you are at now, I wish you all luck with this year. May the standardized testing die, and the AP scores be high.