10 Back to School Rituals We All Completed Before Our Freedom Ended

Back to school was a time which we all dreaded at several points in our lives and on the flip side, our parents loved it.

There was a specific set of rituals we would do before stepping our foot back into school. Here are eleven tasks we all had to do, voluntarily or involuntarily, before the day our freedom ended arrived: 

1) Crying

The first step was to accept that we need to return to school, no late sleeping and all the freedom would be gone. While we were small, not afraid to cry we would cry our hearts out and as we grew up our tears became silent. However, alongside all the emotions, back to school shopping was the best part and there were several different steps in it.

2) Bags

While you would want to buy the most sparkly attractive bag your mom would cave you in buying the most durable one. We wanted to buy the bags with the latest Disney characters and their matching lunch boxes, but ofcourse our mothers wanted the most boring monochromatic ones.    

3) Uniform from Chip and Dale and Uniformers

Buying a new uniform that was a size big so it would last all year long or even the next year from Chip and Dale or Ghani sons and also a pair of black shoes and a pair of tennis shoes from Bata was a part of the shopping ritual. This part was certainly not one we enjoyed. Chip and Dale got an upgrade as fancy Uniformers shops replaced the age-old classic shop. Too bad, Chip and Dale had quite a nice ring to it.

 4) Books

Buying books is not fun cause moms are there to remind you how hard the school year is going to be. Nevertheless, the next days are spend covering those books with brown paper and the plastic that has an eerily nostalgic smell to date.

5) Stationery

Buying colors, pencils, pens, marker, scissors of your choice is the most exciting part, if you are transiting from pencils to pens it becomes even more exciting. Buying those fancy pencil cases with buttons and fruit scented pens, which were nowhere near practical and useful but we loved them and it seemed to validate our trips to the bookstore. We would then stuff our pencil case to the brim with warnings from our moms not to lose anything till the last day, which we ended up loosing within the first week anyway.

6) Food

If you bought a lunchbox, the thought of what you would stuff it with would be enough to start demanding your mom to make special things for lunch. Going to Imtiaz and debating with your siblings on what flavour of Slanty and Lays to to buy certainly made the moms angry.

7) Friends

Calling your friends and asking them would they return this year back to school and praying that they would be in the same section as you. If you are going to a new school, there butterflies in your stomach thinking about what kind of friends you would meet and make.

8) The Final Outing

Going to your Nani’s place on the last weekend enjoying to the fullest as you won’t be able to go during school days was quite the treat. Also, asking your parents to take you out for dinner and Playland and to enjoy the last days of freedom was quite the thing.

9) Homework =Torture

The worst part of returning to school is completing your summer homework, which you might have forgotten till the last day and are probably going to spend the last night doing it.

10) Other Last Day Rituals.

A day before school, setting your backpack with all the books, laying your uniform and shoes out was the final ritual. Ironing your uniform and polishing shoes with cherry shoe polish cause of its addictive smell, was probably only for that one time in the whole year. A tissue worked just fine after. Setting your alarm, thinking that you would wake up without your parents screaming and pulling you off the bed was the final nail in the coffin. LOL. You might hate going back to school but it is the best time of your life and you need to enjoy it till it lasts! Trust us, adulthood ain’t a breeze.  

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