Year: 2004

As I walked through the aisles at Walgreens earlier this week, picking up some last minute school supplies that the teachers have requested, I recalled the days of my youth and the thrill of picking out school supplies.

I guess I lucked out, because my Dad works for Walgreens. I always seemed to end up with some of the coolest stuff. I had a Trapper Keeper long before the rest of my classmates. I remember how you could put the pen above the pad of paper in the back, making it very convenient. I remember setting up my folders, figuring out which color would go with each class. The smell of fresh lined paper. New pencils. Cool pens. Remember when Parker Brothers made nice erasable pens, much cooler then today’s Erasermates? They didn’t erase as well, but they were made in fun colors with a nice shape.

I may have been a dork in many ways, but they were always jealous of my cool school supplies. In a Catholic school with plaid uniform skirts for the girls and basic slacks and polo shirts for the boys, you had to stand out somehow. School supplies were my thing.

Now I’m a mom. School supplies bring me joy (I’m still a pen and paper junkie and nothing thrills me like a good office supply store), but from the Mom perspective, they scare the crap out of me. Jason didn’t want any say in his new school supplies this year. Instead of picking out a binder with me, he went to a Scout meeting with Mike, and asked that I do it while he was gone. Ugh! The pressure! What if the binder I pick out is all wrong? What if he doesn’t like the dividers I picked, and he hates the folders?

More importantly, what if the other kids don’t like them? As if picking out back-to-school clothes wasn’t bad enough, now I had to worry about the school supplies too! The backpack needed to be the right color, and the binder had to be not only hip, but good for organizing things. The dividers should be in color, so that his classes can be color-coded for easy organization. The pens had to be the type that he likes. (The aforementioned Erasermates.)

It was all so stressful! I was having flashbacks in the middle of the store of my own junior high years, and I had to get it all right. It was imperative.

Fortunately, I was successful on my quest. As I looked around at the other kids on the first day of school, I saw similar backpacks to the one Jason now has. He loves his lunch bag, having chosen it from the three I brought home from the store. (I’m not good with decisions.) He declared it as “Cool!” the minute he saw it. I truly scored on the binder though – it has a zipper around the 3-ring binder portion AND a velcro tab on the front to access the area with the accordian file for papers and the mesh zipper pouch for his map pencils. I found a coordinating three-hole punch to go inside, to make it easy to punch his papers to put in the binder. His school planner fits in there too, making it easy for him to write down what is going on in his classes.

Mike told me last night that while his parents definitely took care of him and his brother as far as school supplies, I rocked as a Mom because I picked out all the really cool stuff. Jason seemed to agree.

I guess I still have the skills to pick out all the rad supplies. I didn’t buckle under the pressure, I persevered, and I won the challenge.

As for my happy moment of the day? It was when Jason pulled out his binder when he got home from school, showing me the planner – filled in with his work – and the papers that he worked on today in all of his classes. Neatly organized, of course, in the cool accordian file section of the binder. After some challenges in the past with organization, I was so happy to see him take ownership like that so soon.

Then he pulled out his science homework and got to work on it. On his own. Without me even saying a word.

He seems to be maturing right before our eyes this summer, and I’m really proud of him for that.

Jason went back to school today. Not only the first day of 7th grade (where has the time gone?!?) but the first day back in the public school system. This summer, we made the decision to leave the Catholic school he has been attending since the middle of 4th grade. Not an easy choice.

Jason actually became more excited about school once we made the choice to change. When he arrived home this afternoon, he actually talked about his first day of school. Not the usual routine of us asking questions and he answering them if we’re lucky – no, he actually sat on the couch and talked to me about his day, and when Mike got home from work he went over it all again.

He told us that as far as schools go, this is the best school ever. He seems excited about the opportunity to make new friends. He has even talked himself about having a fresh start. I can honestly understand. Sometimes, a fresh start can be a fabulous thing.

His new school is much larger than his old school, and they didn’t have his schedule ready on Monday so we couldn’t help him find all of his classrooms. I went with him this morning to pick up his schedule, and I was relieved to see that we got all of the classes that we requested. I made sure he had the map that they gave us at orientation, but still… as I left the school and he headed off to his first class, I was nervous.

Actually, I was nervous all day. I’ve said all along that my big fear about this change was the “small fish in a big pond” issue.

This brings me to my happy moment of the day. Originally, he was going to take the bus home at the end of the day. He had asked me to pick him up, but I told him to take the bus. “Mom guilt” started to settle in as the day went on, so I hopped in the car right before school got out to pick him up. I walked up just as he was walking out to get on the bus, and asked him if he wanted a ride. He said no. He wanted to take the bus. He did ask that I wait to leave until he found the bus, so I waited and watched, and off he went. As he boarded the bus, I left and went back to my car to drive home. He arrived home shortly after I did.

Sure, he told me no and he rode the bus home. He left Mom behind. But at that moment, I was very proud of him and truly happy. He had a great first day, and knowing that was my happiest moment. Something tells me that we’re going to have a good year.