it was so cute seeing all the kids get onto the school buses today, and watching their parents take pictures and tearfully wave goodbye. in honor of back-to-school today, here are my favorite memories from elementary, middle, and high school:

- dressing up on the first day
- new school supplies, including clean erasers, red pencil boxes, and trapper-keepers
- crazy teachers who throw chalk, do cheers in math class, and read books aloud
- cafeteria chicken nuggets
- the boy who picks his nose and chases girls around with his boogers
- sitting in the back of the bus
- first-grade "boyfriends" who give lame presents
- crayons
- playing the xylophone and recorder in music class
- field trips
- learning cursive (which i don't even use anymore)
- the "gifted and talented" program
- class pets (only in elementary school would hermit crabs, caterpillars, and mealworms be cool)
- multiplication drills
- recess!
- physical fitness tests
- the talent show
- the pledge of allegiance
- the dreaded chores of sponging down the cafeteria tables and the blackboard
- 24
- shakespeare
- four-square
- fire drills
- trying to trick the thermometer in the clinic
- having braces, but being okay with it since everyone else was just as ugly
- composition notebooks
- playing "scum" every single day on the bus in seventh grade
- falling grades
- the bell
- home ec/"teen living"
- shop/"prototyping"
- lockers
- dances
- homecoming spirit
- driving to school in your own car
- video tech
- 8th period
- cliques
- TI-83s
- AIM
- finding your niche
- senior lounge
- wandering through the halls
- graduation
- learning?