Back to School

Reagan Henley
Jul 25, 2019
2 min read

Happy Friday lovely people! This past week I watched many of my friends start back to classes, and I have to admit that I am a tad bit jealous of them. Truthfully, I miss school and learning. I would not miss all of this if I had never had my very first day of school back in 2009; so let's take a look at that day.

2009:

I am starting 8th grade at a new school, in a new town, and I have never attended a public school before. I only know two people at the school besides my brother and neither of them have classes with me. To say that I was scared is an understatement. Thankfully, I made a few friends that day and everything turned out okay. That first day and year of school after being home-schooled for so long was difficult. I had a lot of adjusting to do, and honestly, I never did quite fit in during school. School was always the easy part for me, it was the social part that I had difficulty with because of my introverted personality.

Flash forward seven years....

2016:

My last first day of school. As a college senior, this was one of the most exciting first days of school. This first day was much different from my first day of school as an 8th grade student. This time, I know people, I am in love with the town, and I feel like I belong. In college, I was there because I wanted to be there, not because I was told I had to be. My introvert personality no longer held me back socially because I found people who were also introverts yet pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me a better person for it. That last first day of school was exciting because I knew I was where I wanted to be, at least for the time being. Life was just getting started and the opportunities were endless.

My first days of school have shaped who I am and what I have done in the past eight years. In all, it was a great ride that taught me more than I could have ever imagined. Although I am done with first days of school for now, I am hoping that 2019 or 2020 will have another first day of school in store for me as I start grad school. Until then I will just revel in the fact that all my first days of school brought me to graduation day, the second happiest day of my life so far.