I love this time of year (autumn), because to me it signals new beginnings. I know. Beginnings should come in January. But I grew up in the Air Force, and we moved way too much. Autumn usually meant a new town, a new home, a new school. It was a time for reinventing myself and starting over. Some years I’d start the school year out as Terry (with a Y), other years I told my teacher and classmates to call me Teresa. Then the next year I’d go back to Terri, this time with an I. One year I wore glasses, the next year I didn’t. One year I had bangs, the next year they’d grown out. One year I went from being pale and plain, to wearing actual make-up. No one knew that I’d been a nerd at the school I’d attended before, or that my grades hadn’t been stellar, or that I hadn’t made choir.  Anything could happen. I could start over fresh.

This time of year, I love going in stores and seeing aisles of school supplies. It’s a sickness, but the sight of all those new kinds of folders and binders, pens and markers, paper clips and staples just gives me a sense of well-being. With a new pack of paper, whether college-ruled or wide-ruled, I could create friends who understood me and knew all about me. With the right pens, I could say all the things I didn’t have the nerve to say out loud. With the right binder, I could draft stories and poems, recording my daydreams. The school supplies offered so many possibilities, and endless potential.

Yes, to this day I’d rather shop in Office Depot or Staples than Bloomingdale’s or Macy’s. I’d rather come home with a colorful binder than a new blouse. And I don’t have to wait for autumn to do that.

But there’s something about autumn, when shelves in department stores are cleared and filled with all the new school fads … It’s the only time of the year when I want to linger in stores. It makes me feel young again, with so much potential, and so many possibilities.

May this autumn bring you the brightest binders with the best pockets, and amazing markers with post-it flags. And may your gel pens bring you many new beginnings!

Terri