When a new university year begins, I reminisce about the fond back-to-school feeling I had in elementary school. Eagerly shopping down Target aisles for new sticker-adorned folders and colored pencils, crayons, and markers. The excitement of a brand new notebook, wondering who would be in my homeroom this year, who my new friends might be, and what I might learn.
Years later, that back-to-school magic has diminished, replaced by the melancholy of summer ending and anxiety about grades and lack of free time. In university, going back to school creates the excitement of seeing my friends, but as for the school part of ‘back to school,’ it is suddenly not as thrilling as it was in my elementary years.
Recently, I have longed for this past optimistic approach, and began to invent plans to reignite the feeling my inner child holds closely. Although my novice nostalgia may never return as strongly as in my junior self, these few practices have certainly helped me tap back into the familiar joy of starting class this fall.
Get Organized
The journey to becoming organized may not feel like the most joy-inspiring task, but it helps stave off the dread of starting class again. Familiarising yourself with where everything you need for the upcoming semester is, whether it’s your notebooks, planners, and pencils, or your favorite cozy sweater, can establish greater confidence going into this new semester.
While organization may not be particularly glamorous, your future self will thank you for starting your semester off on the right foot. Knowing that you won’t be scrambling to find all sorts of missing necessities helps to banish some of those feelings of impending doom and instead allows the excitement to take the front seat.Â
Treat yourself
Treating yourself does not have to be glamorous at all. While you’re organizing and going through all your school supplies, you might realize you’re running low on them. In this case, treating yourself might be taking a trip to Ryman to pick out what you need. While this may feel like more of a necessity than a treat, some of my favorite back-to-school memories as a child involved picking out the most mundane school supplies with my parents.
If you’re feeling like treating yourself beyond school supplies, you could grab a new candle (provided you don’t live in halls) in a comforting autumnal scent to set you in good standing for your classes. After a long day of preparing for the new school year, treat yourself to a Janetta’s trip and enjoy some well-deserved gelato, sweetly savoring the end of summer.
Journaling
For anyone struggling to work through the rollercoaster of emotions during this transitional period, I’ve found that simply writing them down is immensely helpful.
Recently, I have found quiet joy in journaling; it is a productive and creative way to channel our reflective thinking. If thoughts are left unattended, we may fall victim to becoming overwhelmed by nostalgia and flooding anxiety about the uncertainty of the future.
This type of reflective thinking has overwhelmed me at the start of the school year, as I reminisce on the past summer and find myself worrying about what the fall may hold. This year, rather than get bogged down in these feelings, I’ve enjoyed flipping to a new journal page, breaking out some colorful pens, and writing around the change of the seasons, and, most importantly, the start of the new school year. At the beginning of September, I decorated pages with lists of my favorite summer memories and what I was grateful for these past few months, in addition to lists of my favorite things about fall and what I’m looking forward to this semester.Â
Journaling can also help further ease the dread about upcoming classes. As someone who has felt somewhat overwhelmed by my coursework in previous years, I found mental relief in journaling the habits and strategies I can incorporate to stay on track this semester and what I hope to gain from my new modules.
Movie Magic
When you find precious spare time among the whirlwind of the start of semester events, it’s a great time to watch a back-to-school inspired movie. Whether you’re watching a movie night with your flatmates or lying in bed watching Netflix, you can build your anticipation for the return to class vicariously through the characters on your screen. From cult classics like Clueless and Mean Girls to nearly any of John Hughes’ movies, watching other people navigate class, in style and humor, can put you in the back-to-school spirit, helping you romanticize your student experience.Â
Whether back to school has begun to lose its charm due to the name of summer blues, homesickness, or coursework anxiety, these four simple practices can hopefully help you relight that spark back into your back-to-school season.