{"id":2140,"date":"2013-08-25T06:00:01","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=2140"},"modified":"2013-08-24T14:49:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-24T18:49:11","slug":"back-to-school-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=2140","title":{"rendered":"Back to school then and now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;\"><em><strong>The thrill is gone at the start of the year with older kids, now<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\"><strong>By Kelly Hockenberry,<\/strong> <span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><em>Columnist, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/UTKellyRev2Column3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-2142\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" alt=\"UTKellyRev2Column\" src=\"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/UTKellyRev2Column3-250x300.jpg\" width=\"175\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/UTKellyRev2Column3-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/UTKellyRev2Column3.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" \/><\/a>BACK TO SCHOOL: THEN (meaning 5 years ago) vs. NOW<\/p>\n<p>THEN-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brand new backpack (ordered WEEKS in advance) with coordinating lunchbox (and superhero thermos) containing things like carrot sticks, goldfish crackers and a love note from Mommy!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NOW-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Backpack from last year (ripped and tattered. Who cares?!)\u00a0 SuperFresh plastic bag containing a sandwich (HOPEFULLY).\u00a0 NO added note.\u00a0 (Eye roll)<!--more--><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>THEN-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sharpened pencils, colored markers, tape, glue, stickers, tissues, crayons, book covers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NOW-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Phone, maybe a random pencil nub (it\u2019s FINE, Mom!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>THEN-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GAP khaki cargo shorts, polo shirt with prep school emblem, squeaky clean sneakers, fresh haircut, twelve hours of sleep<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NOW-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Basketball shorts (grass stained from summer games of \u201ctouch\u201d football in the yard), black knee socks and slides (still can\u2019t wrap my brain around this one), t-shirt from summer camp, maybe seven hours of shut eye (after all, six in the morning has been the middle of the night for two and a half months)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>THEN-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thrilled to ride the bus and even more excited to come home and relay the events of the day over a snack<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NOW-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>General lack of enthusiasm for the early start.\u00a0 After school prompting of first impression usually resulting in \u201cfine, boring, nothing, OK\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Oh, how I miss the exhilaration of those elementary years!\u00a0 I do not miss the additional paperwork of the lower grades, however.\u00a0 How many \u201cEmergency Contact\u201d forms does one district need for heaven\u2019s sake?\u00a0 Don\u2019t they know us by now?<\/p>\n<p>To be honest, this summer felt particularly fast and I am not ready for the school year to begin quite yet.\u00a0 But, come hell or high water, Monday is happening. \u00a0Do not forget to set the alarm clock and have clothes laid out and lunches packed to ease the transition.\u00a0 Too neurotic?\u00a0 Maybe so, but every bit of organization helps!<\/p>\n<p>Happy LAST day of summer break!\u00a0 Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The thrill is gone at the start of the year with older kids, now By Kelly Hockenberry, Columnist, The Times BACK TO SCHOOL: THEN (meaning 5 years ago) vs. NOW THEN- Brand new backpack (ordered WEEKS in advance) with coordinating lunchbox (and superhero thermos) containing things like carrot sticks, goldfish crackers and a love note [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[1530,892,1675,1107],"class_list":["post-2140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-featured","tag-back-to-school","tag-kids","tag-start-of-the-school-year","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}