Back to school season. We say we dread it, complaining and continuing to pretend that we will not have to return until we grudgingly drag our feet back up the tired steps of the familiar site of everyone's stress dreams.
But do we really hate it? Do we really find ourselves so ridiculously opposed to the thought of returning to school, or does our fear of being unprecedented silence the little nerdy voice in the back of our heads that secretly cannot wait to be back?
Friday night football eases us back into the familiar routine of school spirit. Standing in packed bleachers and screaming, dripping with sweat and paint, brings us closer to the students with whom we will spend the next year of our lives. The losses bond us and the wins unite us with one coherent sense of pride, and the knowledge that we all want the same thing: the win. The solidarity prepares us for the coming year of academic struggle and seemingly impossible deadlines that we will face together.
The new school year brings big changes. There will be new teachers, new classmates, and new material to learn. The seniors are gone, and a new hierarchy of upperclassmen begins to emerge and dominate the social scene. More than likely, you have grown up a little bit over the summer, and some new experience has you ready and excited to show your classmates that you are one step closer to being an adult. You have already started planning your perfect year and the memories you will make along the way.
The smell of clean notebooks and the nervous excitement of labeling an empty binder before the first day sets the tone for a year of possibilities. New beginnings surround you in the spotless hallways and even in the names you have to learn. The boundaries of your last semester’s self are no longer of any consequence, and you can recreate yourself in the fresh year. The possibilities are endless, and becoming the ideal version of yourself no longer seems so far-fetched when everyone has had an entire summer to forget exactly who they think you are. The year is a blank canvas, and the brush is in your hand. You are in control.
There is no personality requirement you have to fulfill. There are no boxes you have to check to be allowed to move forward, and there is nothing stopping you from being exactly who you set out to be. No one can tell you who you are because they do not know yet. You have not showed them, but you are about to.
Be the unique, unconquerable version of yourself that you know that you are. Embrace every quirk and every oddity. Let that little nerdy voice in the back of your head speak out and be heard, because chances are, it has quite a lot to say.
That is the real reason we are all excited to go back to school: Anything is possible.
