In memory of Back to School

I remember the days leading up to the first day of school. Our parents would take us clothes shopping a few weeks in advance and we were forbidden to wear our new clothes before that day. I often remember my sister and I trying on our clothes for each other over and over just for an excuse to put them on. We would even hold our new notebooks (or TrapperKeeper) to see how we would look waiting for the school bus.
I remember the year that button up shirts and ties were the style. I was in third grade and my sister in 6th. My tie was blue and pink and I would wear it loosely tied with a white button up shirt....cute!
I remember one year I was actually able to talk my parents into letting me wear my new tennis shoes to Carbone's. They were white shoes, white laces, with one purple and one pink heart on the outside of the shoe. I swear when I put those shoes on that I could run faster and jump higher. I am sure that I probably even gave it a try and convinced myself right then and there that these shoes were going to change my life. I remember walking out of the pizza place and looking down at my new kicks. The sun was hitting them just right and I can still feel the burn in my eyes; the reflection of the sun mixed with the whiteness of my shoes was lethal.
To this day I still get a little nervous when Labor Day approaches. I get nervous that I will oversleep and miss the school bus. I get nervous that I won't be able to open my locker or find my class schedule. I get nervous that my clothes will be out of style. I get nervous that the boys will be cuter and I will be too nervous and shy to talk to them. Nervous that my friends won't remember who I am.
Silly how those things stay with us....even 12 years after I have graduated high school...the same butterflies come back every year.
Thank goodness for the Class of 1994!