I’ve been out of school for roughly a couple years now.
For the most part, it feels pretty good: no more hours upon hours of homework, no more studying until the first bleak rays of early morning for tests, and no more having to ride an elongated banana of a bus with well-worn pleather seats that reek of cleaning solutions.
And yet, I can not for the life of me shake that just-before-school feeling.
You know the one I’m talking about: that tiny little nugget of excitement that fills your belly when you walk past a back-to-school supplies sale. That sense of packing your things into a new backpack for the first day of school. Seeing your friends again while being surrounded by desks, magic-erase boards, and rows upon rows of lockers.
But that’s only half of the back to school coin.
The other half… not as much fun. I’m talking about having to wake up at the crack of dawn Monday through Friday, haunting the kitchen like a half-alive zombie in search of cereal and a bowl. (Not necessarily in that order! Believe me, I’ve made that mistake too many times to dare count.) Preparing lunches because you forgot to get it all together the night before…again. And don’t even get me started on sharing the bathroom in the morning. When you grow up in a relatively small two-bedroom farm house with only one closet-sized bathroom, things can get pretty hairy in a blink of a sleep-encrusted eye.
Then again, now that I think about it, this is pretty much what adults have to deal with, only it’s 24/7. Instead of getting up before the sun pokes above the tree tops to get on the bus, I have to get up to make sure I get adequate bathroom time. Instead of having homework to bring home and fuss over, I have to rush and get everything finished before I can jump in my car and run away for the night. And instead of having to deal with grumpy teachers who would rather be anywhere else than in the classroom, I have the pleasure of working with customers who don’t know what they’re doing, and yet still have the firm belief that everything is my fault.
Which brings me to vacation. While students get to have whole summers away from educational institutions, no matter how great or disastrous they may be, grown-ups who don’t work in the educational field don’t get to have that luxury. Instead, depending on how long they may have worked at a job, they can have a range of one to two weeks of precious vacation. That’s it. two weeks. Maybe more if they’ve spent more than 10 or so years at a business. For most places, the vacation is paid. Some places, such as fast-food restaurants, don’t even give you that. If you want a vacation, then you have to plan for that allotted time without a regular source of income.
So, I guess what I’m trying to say in a round-about way is: While school seems to be a soul-sucking institution of unusual punishment at times, it’s a lot better than having to live as a functioning adult to society.
Can I go back to being a kid and dealing with just school?
L.J. LaBree 