Whenever I hear Andy Williams velvety voice enthusiastically bellowing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," I don't think of Christmas; rather, I think of the Staples commercial with a father joyfully skipping down the school supply aisle as his children trudge behind him with a sense of impending doom. I know some of you may be disturbed by this but the start of the school year for me is as exciting as Christmas, maybe even more exciting. Fact Number One: I am a big nerd. Fact Number Two: I love school. As a kid, I loved going shopping for my new school supplies. I could spend hours looking at mechanical pencils, debating the pros and cons of erasable pens, and fawning over notebooks with lilac paper. The smell of Mr. Sketch Markers and Sharpies, the only high I craved. I sometimes feel a little guilty that I enjoy my job too much. I sometimes want to be like the other "cool kids" and nod my head in solidarity that this "working for the man" is totally lame. And while I sometimes feel school administrators* try to suck my joy and overwhelm me during our opening in-service week, I have perfected my selective hearing skills which enables me to start the year with my joy and excitement mostly intact. I've been thinking about what I am most excited about as I start a new school year. I'm excited about having my own classroom this year. Last year, I floated through four different classrooms which was a new (and enlightening) experience for me as I learned to use the bare essentials. I'm excited to meet my new students and see some of my seventh graders from last year in my eighth grade classes. While last year proved to be a challenging year for me for many different reasons, I honestly adored my students and had one of the best years in my career thus far. But for those of you who know me best, I am probably most excited about getting to wear my cute clothes--both old and new.
Clothes. Call me vain. Call me superficial. I love pretty clothes. I attribute my love of clothes to my wonderfully stylish mother. As a little girl, I remember trailing my fingertips over the clothes that filled her closet and marveled at how she carefully curated her wardrobe. My mother worked as a bank teller before bank tellers had to wear those awful sweater vests and oxford shirts, and a significant amount of my mother's part-time job earnings fueled her penchant for clothes and her ultimate Kryptonite--shoes. Every day she went to work, she meticulously selected her clothes which she always capped off with a great pair of shoes. Growing up, my mother and I bonded over shopping. I loved nothing better than a day spent trying on clothes and the high of finding a great deal coupled with a brief stop for a slice of pizza from Dino's at the Wyoming Valley Mall. At least once a year, we would head to the Tannersville Outlets for the ultimate binge shopping extravaganza usually in preparation for the upcoming school year. We had a budget and a mission to find the best deals, and typically left after a day of shopping feeling exhausted and satisfied.
Do clothes make the man or woman? No. But to me clothes are important. I still associate clothes shopping with those wonderful days bonding with my mother not only looking for good deals but spending time with my mom. While I always felt the genetic pool had denied me the code to my mother's beauty, I did inherit her innate sense of style. Through my awful, awkward, chunky, crooked-teethed pre-teen and teenage years, I seldom felt pretty, but I at least felt a little more confident armored in my clothes which concealed my all too real and sometimes perceived flaws. I may not have been cute but at least I was wearing cute clothes. While some women expend their energies trying to impress the opposite sex with their clothing choices or other women, I am mostly trying to impress myself. I spend many evenings scrolling through Pinterest to decompress, mostly looking at clothes, and I came across the following quote in my feed, "Beauty is being the best possible version of yourself on the inside and out" and thought this quote succinctly encompasses my attitude towards fashion and myself.
As I prepare for my first day of school with students on Monday, I have been busily prepping my new classroom. I also have started the process of prepping new curriculum for my classes which has left me feeling slightly stressed. When I feel stressed, my two best stress relievers are running and shopping. So on Wednesday, when I felt overwhelmed at my curriculum meeting, I opted for what I like to call a "working" lunch and went in search of an H&M skirt I had scoped out in a magazine a few weeks ago. Alas, the store in the Exton Mall no longer carried the skirt, but have no fear, I scored a different skirt, okay maybe two, and went back to my meeting feeling a little happier after my retail therapy. I'm still vacillating between the H&M skirt or the cute brown dress I picked up a few weeks ago for $14.99 at the Outlets for the first day of school? Yes, it's the hap-happiest season of all.
*Note: When I reference "school administrators," I am not referencing my wonderful building principals. They put the "pal" in principal.
