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September Nostalgia

September. A time of (terrible) organisation and frantic shopping for uniform, for stationary and back to school clobber. Thankfully, my time for that has past - there is much less of a fuss going back to uni.

For me, getting ready to go back to school was my least favourite time of the year. It officially marked the end of the summer. The end of roaming the streets of London (or wherever we had gone that year), chilling with family, barbecues, neighbourly street gatherings and dossing about with your mates. After six weeks, it seemed almost cruel to abruptly cut the fun out of your life and return to a place where things weren’t quite as sound. I suppose it’s different going back to secondary school than it is primary though. At least with primary, there is less of a desire to have everything spick and span and expensive. I feel that in secondary school, definitely in my experience anyway, there was an unspoken sort of inclination to have things that were branded, and basically had brag rights. For instance, one year, I distinctly remember everyone seemed to have these tiny little Nike backpacks. In retrospect, they were tremendously impractical. But everyone had one, and the temptation to emulate this false depiction of what was ‘cool’ was overwhelming, but thankfully I didn’t follow it up. Of all of the embarrassing things I did in secondary, and there was quite a bloody few of them, I imagine that would’ve easily made Top 20.

I thought I’d speak about going back to school this week because I’ve been watching my brother get ready to go back to secondary over the past couple of weeks and admittedly, I do sort of miss it. Well, some parts of it anyway. It was such a busy time, scrambling to check everything off the list of things that you definitely need and may potentially need some day. The hectic shopping trips once you’ve realised you’ve forgotten to get a hoodie for PE or a spare pair of trousers, so you’d have to go back and it being a pain to find the right ones. It was an absolute nightmare. But, the one thing to come out of it was shopping for the bits and pieces I actually had an interest in.

I was watching my brother sort through his stationary today. He’d emptied out his pencil case and was divvying up what to include and what he’d leave at home because he wouldn’t actually need it. This was my favourite part of this time of year, buying and sorting through stationary. In fact, I did end up doing a bit of a stock shop, even though the only thing I really need for uni nowadays is a pen and a notebook, and a diary to aid my poor organisational skills. As photography is quite a hands-on course, my work is often digital and all done on my laptop or in the studio or on location, so shopping for pens and such isn’t something that I need to check off my list of getting ready to go back. That still wasn’t going to stop me from doing a bit of a stationary shop though!

My friends and I went to Tesco the other day, and of course, I made them stroll through the ‘Back to School’ aisle so I could have a gander at some of the new stationary out this year. There is something riveting about wandering down an aisle packed with writing equipment and beautiful notebooks to doodle and scribble in; I actually find it quite exciting. Perhaps it was because I was feeling a bit nostalgic, I’m not overly sure, but I find that there’s a certain thrill in buying stationary. That sounds incredibly boring and stupid, but I’m certain it’s an undeniable fact. Anyways, after spending a little too long than I should’ve pondering about which bits and bobs I needed (but probably didn’t), I ended up convincing myself to buy a diary, which I do actually need, and a massive whiteboard, which I don’t. Don’t get me wrong though, it was almost too difficult to resist the stacks of meticulously embroidered notebooks or coloured metallic pens, art supplies or pastel fineliners and highlighters that were staring at me, practically begging me to put them in my trolley. Don’t even get me started on the pencil cases – so many designs, much different from the ones that used to be in the shops when I was going back to school.

I find it baffling how stationary still seems to have such an overwhelming effect on me. It sounds a bit nerdy but I actually get quite excited when I have to go out and buy some new pens or folders or whatever else. Anything else. It’s an underrated pleasure of mine. And one that’s hard to resist. I find myself very easily tempted and will end up convincing myself that I need things that I honestly probably don’t. It’s a talent really. And this is the reason why I have made it my one rule not to go stationary shopping on my own anymore.

Anyway, this week I thought I’d write something acknowledging my September nostalgia. I often dismiss the buzz of going back to school, but it was nice to reminisce upon the elements I thoroughly enjoyed, as well as the bits I didn’t. Whether you are going back to uni, school or work, good luck :)

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