New dress, new shoes, crisp, new paper and unsharpened, un-chewed pencils. New friends, new teachers, more homework, less free time, rainy day recess. New schools, daisy chains, soggy lunch bags, school bus drivers.
Old friends, new crushes, new clothes, new fashions, new pimples. Laughing hard, crying hard, good friends, bad grades, bad study habits. First car, first kiss, first broken heart, first time up all night reading.
First apartment, good courses, great professors, love of learning, new experiences, learning to write better, better grades, reading evolves into bibliophilia, first love, second broken heart. Horizons widened, focus narrowed, Learning to be athletic, getting accustomed to being more outgoing, meeting new people. Lots of roommates, lots of soap operas, lots of final exams and lots of tequila.
Back to school, still love learning, impatient with the young, more patient with myself, professors as peers, self-satisfaction, Dean's list. Less traffic, less theft, more quiet. More new experiences, new skills, new craft, new confidence, new directions, new horizons. New hope. New job, new dress, new shoes….
I will always, for as long as my mind is able, go back to school.
