First day of school

Monday was my first day of school. My alarm clock went off before the sun came up. I popped out of bed and began my morning routine per every other school day. I fell right back into the same schedule, minute for minute.

First I plugged in my flat-iron straightener, then lethargically donned jean shorts and a T-shirt, consumed a waffle or two and then aimlessly shuffled through my phone until it was time to go.

Are we simply conditioned to fall back into the same routine? I felt like summer had never come, and had never left. Pulling into school, this eerie feeling washed over me as if the entire summer had been a dream … every splash in a pool, every afternoon basking in every last ray of sun, every second with a friend. It had been a good dream, but all dreams are fleeting at best and eventually come to pass.     

However at school, it was like time had erased the three months that had separated the friends I only talked to at school. Inside jokes from last year were quickly reborn. And I don’t believe I’ve given out so many hugs in a very long time.

Summer is now simply a memory, something I will begin counting down to around March of next year. This year I’m determined not to focus on the breaks, however, and appreciate every second. I’m over halfway done with high school, and halfway to the real world. That is scary.