School Supplies

I admit it, I have a fetish. Not the kind that will drop any jaws or turn any heads, but none the less a true obsession. I love school supplies. Most people dread seeing school supplies on store shelves, because it signifies the end of summer. I, on the other hand, cannot wait. What could be better than a twenty-four pack of Crayola crayons for twenty cents? At that price I can buy enough packs to insure that I never have to color with a dull crayon. There is just something about school supplies that does it for me. Bins of crayons from eight count to one hundred forty-four cause my toes to crinkle, bright yellow number two pencils and especially all the new designs that you can buy now make my heart beat just a little faster. Notebooks, I think these are my favorite. They get prettier every season. I have notebooks that I will never write in, journals that have been living in my drawer for years, yet I buy more. I can’t seem to help myself. Crisp, white, paper bound in some really trendy cover is truly the pinnacle for me. Notebooks hold so much possibility and the pretty ones inspire me to fill them with equally pretty words. I will happily sharpen pencils to perfection for hours, if necessary. I have Sharpies in every color although I rarely have occasion to use them. I recently spent an entire afternoon organizing my children’s pencils, markers, colored pencils and pens. I sharpened every colored pencil to an exact point and placed each group of writing implements in a separate container. I find this to be a much better use of my time than dusting or washing dishes. I love school supplies. There is something promising about sharp crayons, loose leaf notebook paper and unsharpened pencils. Schools supplies signify the beginning of possibility; the possibility that a brand new school year will hold, the endless possibility in a pack of brightly colored crayons, the unlimited possibilities that occur when a No. 2 pencil meets a wide-ruled sheet of paper. Maybe I am holding on to a piece of my childhood, or maybe I am looking to the possibility of my own future that will most likely involve many years of school supplies. Whatever the reason, or maybe for no reason at all, I am obsessed with school supplies.