I remember being a child on summer break and prancing through the doors of Walmart, only to be greeted by the pungent smell of Crayola crayons and rows of hideous orange displays filled with a sea of school supplies. I know our brains tend to associate colors with emotions, but for me, orange wasn’t energy — it was doom. There was still more than a month of summer left, but Walmart had already rolled out the school supplies, reminding my parents of all the rollback deals and signaling that summer was officially on borrowed time — cue the shark attack musical score from Jaws.
As an adult, I miss it.
It’s hard to believe there was a time in my life when my biggest worries were the back-to-school jitters, hoping I got the teacher I wanted and, most importantly, picking out the best school supplies. When I started kindergarten, my mom kept every craft, homework assignment and drawing I ever made. She even saved the receipt from my very first school supply shopping trip. Back in 2003, she spent less than $20.
Given that I was a spoiled only child, I was fortunate to start every school year with everything I needed, along with a new backpack, shoes and uniforms.
As I moved up through the grades, my school supplies changed, and so did my limited fashion choices. I wore the same uniforms year after year, something I’m grateful for now because I never had to spend time deciding what to wear. After watching A Cinderella Story the summer before third grade, I traded my trusty light-up Skechers — are light-up shoes still a thing? — for bubblegum-pink high-top Converse, just like Hilary Duff wore on the movie poster. I felt like a real grown-up the day I graduated to mechanical pencils and glitter gel pens. It didn’t get much fancier than that.
I vividly remember deciding to stop buying character-themed backpacks in fifth grade because they were no longer considered cool. Instead, I picked out a black-and-white JanSport backpack covered in peace signs. I went all out before middle school because I was finally getting a locker of my own. Much to my disappointment, it was tiny — nothing like the one Sharpay Evans had in High School Musical. School supplies became a little less exciting after that, mostly binders, loose-leaf paper and extra pencils in case a classmate needed one. By high school, my final semester as a senior revolved around a Chromebook that nobody wanted to pay for because we were quite literally on our way out the door.
College shopping looked different, too. I still bought the occasional notebook, but binders and my laptop became the real essentials. Somewhere along the way, I realized I was walking right past the aisles I had once begged my mom to visit. You blink, and suddenly you’re no longer picking out the latest Disney Princess lunchbox. Instead, you’re buying a TI graphing calculator you’ll use for one pre-calculus class that has you fighting for your life. You trade your favorite childhood book for an expensive textbook while trying to convince yourself renting it is the smarter financial decision.
Just like we grow up, our school supplies grow up with us.
Fortunately, I got to relive a little of that childhood excitement last year while participating in Richmond County’s United Way Stuff the Bus campaign. I can’t wait to do it again this year — not only for the trip down memory lane, but for the chance to help local students start the school year with the supplies they need. One of my favorite parts of growing up has been discovering that buying school supplies can be just as exciting when they’re for someone else. Maybe the kids are alright after all.