It's Back to School Already
By Isabella Sayyah ‘16
I can’t believe it. Somehow it’s not only August, but this is my last week of interning and my first week returning to campus. At Daily Trojan, we have an Orientation Issue, or O-Issue as we call it, which comes out at the beginning of Orientation Week. Because it’s not only a much bigger issue that our normal daily ones, but also all the staff is just learning their duties and adjusting to their new positions, we start on it over a week before Orientation Week actually begins. Luckily, that also means we’re done with it early and get to go on a staff retreat to Palm Desert.
Despite how quickly summer seems to be coming to an end, the beginning of the summer and my trip to Israel seem like ages ago—especially considering everything currently happening in that region. And though it’s always sad when summer ends, there’s also a certain excitement at the thought of going back to school. I’m excited to see many friends whom I haven’t seen all summer again. And though I’ve enjoyed my internship a lot, I’m also looking forward to starting new classes and returning to my Daily Trojan family.
A nice part about living nearby is also that going back to school has become a gradual transition. I can officially move into my apartment on August 15, but I have the feeling I’ll be taking a lot of trips back and forth, slowly moving my stuff in before the beginning of classes. Work-wise, it’s also a transition. I’ve been working on an article for O-issue, as well as editing others’, and getting back into the reporting mindset has been a little strange. A student I was interviewing the other day apologized to me at one point for being caught up in her internship and unsure about the information I needed about one of her involvements at school. I could definitely identify with being in a completely different place and mindset than I am in school.
Another exciting thing about going back to school is it always gives me excuses to shop. Since coming to college, in addition to all the clothes I convince myself (and sometimes my mom) I need for the fall, I also get to shop for kitchen and home stuff. Though buying inexpensive pots and pans for my apartment isn’t super exciting, something about Target during back-to-school season makes it fun anyway.
The only bad part about back-to-school shopping is that I never end up getting to wear any of my purchases—or at least, not for a while. As stores roll out their fall collections, I prematurely start buying sweaters and jackets, only to soon realize that the weather won’t actually cool off until October. Somehow, marketers have tricked us all into thinking that back to school means fall weather and changing leaves, when really, August is the middle of summer. But nevertheless, the transition is fun. I even made a haircut appointment for the week before school begins because nothing says back to school like freshly chopped locks and shiny new shoes.
I think that’s really where the excitement of back to school comes from—the novelty of everything. Sure I’m heading back to the school I’ve been going to for the past two years, but with it will come a new apartment, new roommate, new classes, new position at the Daily Trojan, and some other new things I can’t even predict yet. College is a weird time—you’re constantly in transition. I always feel like there’s three distinctly separate sections of my year; my everyday life and schedule changes drastically between them. And though sometimes it’s the worst (the constant moving!) it’s also one of the best parts. Nothing ever gets too old and boring, and you’re constantly given the chance to try new things.
