I've been inspired... Again

by Charlie. And I'm also listening to Kate Nash's 'Mouthwash' which is just inspiring on it's own.

But this post's title should be "Let's Talk About The First Day Of School" because it is a topic that has a thousand opinions tied up in it.

Okay, so I am one of the people who LOVES the first day of school. I don't really hang out with my school friends during the summer, so I get to see all of them again, which is awesome. Except that they've all gone off to somewhere fabulous and lost a trillion pounds and gotten their hair done and gone through at least two boyfriends. The conversation usually goes like this:
Me: Hey ____! God, you look amazing!
Friend: Haha, thanks Jess, you look just like you always do, you never seem to change.
Me: Oh, uh. Yeah. What did you do over break?
Friend: Oh, jeez, what didn't I do? I was in Hawaii for like, three weeks, that was amazing, I met this guy and then I went to Europe, got back three days ago and.... Well, what did you do?
Me: I uh.... Beat three bosses in Zelda in one week. And then I attempted to work on one of my novels, the sci-fi one, but didn't get very far. I went to Montana and got to work on a ranch for a while, that was cool.
Friend: Um, yeah, sure. Oh, I see ________, catch up with you later.

And then I go hang out with the awesome band geeks who love me.

I'm not the biggest shopper, so back to school clothes shopping is never on the top of my list. But every year I attempt to reinvent myself, and always end up falling back to the good old jeans and a t shirt look. Some people come back looking like they hired a stylist and wardrobe crew. And I just look like my mom dragged me to the mall.

But I also like getting my schedule, and checking to see who's in my classes. I love it when there's only like, one obscure friend in a class. It gives me a chance to branch out.

I also see where people who hate the first day are coming from. Everyone judges you, and it doesn't matter if you're the prom queen of the lowest band geek, every one's going to be eying you, making sure you didn't make a drastic change over the summer and get beautiful, or go the opposite way. Girls scope out the guys from last year, see if they grew out of the block head stage they were in last year, and guy, well. I don't know what guys do. I'm not one.

And all the while, you're trying to decide what you want to be this year. Do you want to branch out so far you're in a totally new group? Do you want to hang back with all your old friends? Are you going to go out for that club, or try out for that play? Are you going to sit in the front, or the back? Be teacher's pet or class clown? And the tricky thing is, everyone else is also trying to figure out what they want to be, and at the same time, they are trying to figure out what everyone else wants to be.

And really, all you have is the first week before you're stuck as whatever they label you. Sure, you can be all "I don't have a label, I'm just me." But chances are, they'll make a label for you, like "That kid who doesn't have a label."

And of course, on top of all of that, you have to deal with actual school work. Because we ARE talking about school here. So you have to deal with teachers who may or may not hate you for no reason.

But that's a different topic. Teachers are a different breed of people.