It was my resolution. I wouldn’t say New Year’s resolution because this has been a running resolution for many years now. No More Sweating the Small Stuff. And to be honest, I’m proud of myself for having kept to that resolution for all of 7 minutes. It was then that I realised I needed to buy stationery for back to school… for 3 kids.
Back to school: stationery shopping
Armed with 3 lists that probably have never been updated to remove unnecessary crap that no child ever uses, I made my way to the stationery store just after Christmas. “It will be quiet ” I thought. Seems like everyone had the same thought. So I got busy trying to juggle the lists and the people, going up and down the aisles a number of times because there was no easy way to consolidate the lists.
And then there was loadshedding. The generator kicked in and lit up just the area where the cashiers are which was really helpful since I couldn’t see a thing in the dark. Not only that but having no air-conditioner in a store with many people in the December heat is no fun at all.
Take two: a few days later to get the remaining items on the lists and I manage to get most of it. I don’t think these schools know that there is no difference between a 192 page feint and margin book or a 192 page counter book. Neither do they realise that there are no 196 page hard cover books. And besides, I know my kid, he isn’t even going to write in more than 23 of those pages anyway. But my daughter is a very by-the-book kinda person and she insisted on having exactly what the list said.
Back to school: covering books
So I covered the books before she could see how many pages they have. My sons covered their own books because they really don’t care which was evident by the amount of sellotape used, the unfolded corners and skew edges. (It took all my self-control not to redo them all) I did however resolve to buy shares in the sellotape company as soon as possible.
And then I was wondering just how many trees were used to make the covers and how little regard is given to the environment by the amount of plastic used for the plastic covers. Who benefits from the covering anyway? Me? Definitely not. The kids? Of course not. The teachers? They obviously don’t know the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”. And I refused to buy labels so names were written directly onto the paper covers. Rebel.
Back to school: covering textbooks
Don’t even get me started on the size of the textbooks. Can they not all be a standard size of the exercise books? Why? Why must we measure and position and cut and tape and close and open the books to see that they aren’t bending because we taped them while open and now they don’t close… why?
Back to school: Why, oh why?
And so my new resolution is to keep asking why. For anything and everything that doesn’t make sense to me. I will continue to ask myself why because I don’t like confrontation and making waves so I will just keep asking myself why and still continue to do pointless things that I find completely useless. Happy 2023 everyone!
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