I really miss the beginning of the school year. I was the type of kid who loved summer, but by mid-July I was secretly aching to get back to school.I missed the structure, the friends, the activities, the work, my teachers — everything about it.In high school, activities started at the beginning of August. Marching band practice would begin and we would have two basketball practices a day, four days a week. These days were grueling. I would be exhausted by 5 p.m. and sore, very sore, but I was happy to be back in the grind.The start of August also meant the start of my pleas to go school clothes and supplies shopping. Oh how I miss picking out the perfect folders and pencils. I would stand in the school supply aisle for what seemed to Mother like hours, trying to figure out which notebook would be best for my classes. Some years I chose the kind with five subjects in one nice spiral package, other years I opted to color coordinate with my folders.Basically, I think I was a dork. No other children were bragging about their supplies or showing them off, but I would. When I would get home from the store, I would dump the bags of supplies out and spend days looking over the items I bought. I would pack and repack my backpack dozens of times in the days before school started.The best had to be getting school clothes. I was always growing, inches and inches at a time. So I inevitably needed new jeans and shoes in the fall, plus I was pretty hard on my clothes. They spent a good amount of time in balls at the bottom of my gym bag or shoved on the floor of dirty locker rooms.In August, my mother, my siblings and I would set out for new school gear. Sometimes we would travel to the cities (saving money on the tax-free clothing options), but most of the time we would hit discount stores. We usually would have two trips to get everything we needed and my mother always insisted that we go in with a plan.She was very adamant about all of the clothing matching. She wanted us to be able to mix and match our new stuff – getting what in her opinion was more bang for the buck.Most shopping trips included some tears, either because we couldn’t get something we wanted, we didn’t fit into the sale items or because the shopping had ended for the year. But the tears would quickly disappear, because when we would return home we got to play dress up. Outfit after outfit would come off the hanger or out of the bag to be tried on for the family. We would make my father check out the new digs and my mother would start adding up the savings of each item. Clearance and sale purchases were always encouraged.It was so much fun and everything looked so nice. Following the fashion show, my new clothing would get hung up and put in a special area of the closet. I wouldn’t wear any of the new items until school started. My siblings usually would put on their new stuff to show off to friends, but not me. The clothes would just hang there waiting, taunting me with their bright colors and creased seams.As the days of summer became fewer, my excitement would mount. I even remember several years where I would start my "school year" bedtime two weeks in advance. I would be in bed at 8:30, even though the sun was still out and my friends and brothers were still awake. I was just that excited for everything to start.The night before the first day of school, I wouldn’t even sleep. Again I would go to bed early, but within a few hours I would be up repacking that backpack with my supplies, perhaps making a last minute pencil or pen substitution.In college my love for the start of the school year grew even more intense. Now instead of having to buy just school supplies and clothing, you actually got to go buy your books. I love bookstores and the university bookstore is like a Mecca of greatness to me.I would wander the aisles looking for the books I needed, spend a good amount of time sifting through the used copies trying to find the cleanest version available. Oh, how I miss those days – they were expensive books, but I loved buying them.If it weren’t for my job at the Crescent, I probably wouldn’t even know when school starts and I certainly don’t have any reason to buy supplies for the new school year. I can’t remember the last time I could successfully justify a shopping trip for a new wardrobe that would mix and match.So my advice to the children of the area, enjoy these weeks. Not because they are your last before returning to the dreaded classroom, but because eventually they go away. When your school years are finished, summer will no longer be a vacation – it will be nothing more than a season.Story ideas or comments can be e-mailed to Lexi Moore at lexim@star-herald.com or called in at 962-3561.