My friends! How lovely is it to be back in school reading this newspaper together, just where we left off. Many of you may disagree, wishing you were still laid out on the beach, tanning your lives away. Yeah, me too.
I really do wish there was a feeling as good as baking under the sun with a UV of 10, sandwich from Boccatos in hand, smelling of Sunbum without a care in the world. It’s a tough thing to beat, I’ll be honest. But, the yearly back-to-school shenanigans always seem to make the transition from the beach to the classroom a little more bearable.
I know for me, the newness of fresh school supplies leaves me feeling especially satisfied. But there’s one thing I always seem to forget about every year—Manhattan Beach’s Target is a warzone from late July to mid-August. Local shoppers come armed to dig for the good folders, buy all the college-ruled paper, and clear out the stationary bigtime. I might be guilty of that last one—you never know when you might need multi-colored Post-Its, so it’s best to be prepared.
No matter how old I get, I still get so excited about my outfits for the first couple months of school. That is, until I start losing motivation and my outfits become composed of a loose rotation of usual suspects in my closet. One thing I can’t get behind though, is the adoption of pajamas as everyday wear. Athleisure, though…that is a different story. Until our motivation fizzles out, you can’t tell me there’s a better feeling than walking into school with fresh, new shoes and an outfit you love.
But what happens when the back-to-school “fun” dies out? Giving up becomes an option again. What I’ve realized from my three years at Costa thus far, though, is that we are the only ones who have control over our motivation. Sure, you could blame parents, teachers or tutors for putting pressure on you, but ultimately it is up to you to take initiative and get things done, or not. And as seniors, we actually get an excuse for this lack of motivation: senioritis. It’s a very vulnerable position to be in, because when you really think about it, we’re actually just getting started.
Recently, I’ve been wanting to read a book called “The Mountain is You,” by Brianna Wiest. In a nutshell, it’s about how we are the only obstacle between ourselves and our dreams. Kind of an interesting concept, if you ask me. So instead of senioritis, I will be choosing excitement, and I think you should too. Excitement that the world will soon be our oyster and that we will be better equipped to take on a variety of challenges. It felt like forever ago that we longed to be eighteen, so to put on the brakes now would be awfully anti-climactic.
Before the shiny parts of going back-to-school dull out, I want to initiate the turning of a new leaf. In this column, for this year, and with all of you. A new school year means a new attitude, and despite having the same seagull problem in the quad, there is a lot of growth in store for all of us so long as we keep moving. So with that, I wish you all a school year full of morning routines and motivation. Don’t let the back-to-school attitude burn out already—we have so much more to stay excited for over the next year. Can’t wait to keep talking about it.
Until October,
Xoxo,
Ava
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