When I graduated high school, the thing that was hard for me to come to terms with was the fact that I probably didn't need to shop for that many school supplies. That sucked. I am a stationary fiend. There are journals, notebooks, pens, pencils, highlighters, folders, and all kinds of supplies in bins around my house. Some of them are used, some of them are not, some haven't even left the packaging.

The point is, I love stationary. You never know when it's going to come in handy. The thing about school supply shopping is that there's always something new every year. It's never the same thing twice. If you walk into Target right now, you'd probably find about 20 journals that you've seen for the past year walking through the office supply section. But if you go into that same Target during school supply season, it's a whole new ballgame.

Granted, when I went to college, I realized that I would still need supplies, but not as much, and not as often. Most of the work in college is done via laptop, but occasionally you would need things. The fun for me was being able to have a personalized planner and not one of the school issued ones that you absolutely had to have in order to do things.

Luckily, in my major, and in my current profession, I never have to shy away from the school supply section once the end of July rolls around. As a stage manager, I have to have tons of pencils, pens, and highlighters for actors and designers alike. I need copious amounts of Post-It Notes and Post-It Flags in order to keep my script labeled and my life in order. I still need that fancy planner to make sure I am on top of everything, regardless if things are done in Google Drive or not. I can forever browse the school supply section and shamelessly pick up things that I know I will need in the future. Plus, the fun thing about stage managing is that you always need extras of things, so having 4 boxes of colorful highlighters is actually a good thing, and it's added fun when you get to geek out with your stage manager friends about the latest stationary extraordinaire.

Bottom line, school supply shopping always has a place in my heart, and being in theatre makes sure that I never have to forget where I came from.