And thus begins another year...

I got shit today on Facebook from people who go to a sister school of my campus, who were getting on my case that they start two weeks sooner than my school. For some reason, this is some huge point of contention for them, despite the fact that they get a fall break and we don't and they also get an extra day for Thanksgiving or Christmas I believe. And we get an extra week to build up strength in our legs to prep for the half-hour it takes to cross campus (when it takes five minutes to cross theirs. Ha). Whatever. Point was, I was kind of pissed that they were raining on my parade about how happy I was to be back at the U. Because I'm really fucking glad to be back.

Seriously, after being back in class after two days, I realized how much I missed this. Of course, when I have three papers due and 200 pages of reading to do three weeks from now, I'll want to punch myself for saying all of this. But I'm SO glad to be back. Summer just feels stale and stagnant now, like a waiting period to when I can go back to being myself. Being with a lot of my friends from high school just feels awkward and being in a suburb for too long isn't healthy for me or anyone else in a ten mile radius now (yes, yes, I'm a city girl. We've established this). It feels good to use my brain for school work and it feels so nice to smell that mix of fallen leaves, coffee and bus fumes on University Avenue. And so, so nice to see people again who understand me - or at least pretend to understand me. It's not that I don't see people like that in the summer - it's just that there seems to be fewer of them.

I kept thinking about Harry Potter the other day, actually, and how happy he always was to go back to Hogwarts. In high school, I couldn't quite understand this. Yeah, I liked school but not that much. Now I get it. I really do. People might think my school is giant or dangerous or not as good as others. But for me, it's perfect. So don't give me shit about it. Especially if you were the ones who made me realize how perfect it was for me (looking at you, sister-school not to be named. You're always rivaling with us to be better than the Big U. Give it up. We're not competing with you. We are who we are, you are who we are. Stop trying to compensate).

Anyway, it's good to be back. Ski-U-Mah.