Goodbye Summer, Hello School.

Summer flew by way too fast this year, because I am not ready to go back to school. One minute, I was celebrating being free, and the next, I’m staring at my phone in horror because it’s only a week before September. That’s right folks—it’s back-to-school season—basically the worst thing ever invented.

Let me mourn what I’ll miss once school starts: sleep. Remember all those blissful summer mornings where you could sleep til noon and wake up truly refreshed, and without a care in the world? Well kiss those pleasures goodbye. Now, we get to look forward to dragging ourselves out of bed at ungodly hours, leaving home while it’s still dark to commute to school. With homework, extracurriculars and home responsibilities piling up, there’s just no way I can secure 9 hours for sleep. During most school weeks, I get 8 hours of sleep a night at best because school starts at 8am for some reason. 

I’m also the biggest hater of classrooms. I hate the way that they look and feel. While I’ll give it to my teachers that they do their best to make it as homey as possible, and I appreciate their work, those hard plastic chairs and nasty gray tables just zap the joy out of everything. Those chairs, so stiff I can’t feel my bum after an hour of sitting, are clearly designed by sadists. The tables have this weird granite-ish texture that makes the hair on my skin rise because it feels off. Also the classroom temperatures are either freezing cold or meltingly hot; there’s just no in-between somehow. Goodbye comfy, quiet room with AC, and hello my old nemesis, the loud, uncomfortable and mysterious-smelling classroom. 

Don’t even get me started on school lunches. Sure, I’ve been complaining about my elementary and middle school lunches. But now I understand how blessed I’ve been, because thinking back, the elementary school lunches are Michelin meals compared to what my school serves now. The canteen serves very limited options—and the good ones are always out of stock. So I’ve been stuck with eating mystery meatloaf and vegetables drizzled in vinegar whenever I forget to bring my own lunch. And I wish I could bring something from home everyday but budget wise, I can’t.

And don’t get me wrong, while I love spending time with my friends after school in clubs, sometimes, it just feels like too much. Because apparently, it’s not enough to spend all day in school, and we’re mandated to spend more after school to “enrich our social activities.” Who needs free time or, you know, sleep? (All right, fine, it all comes down to school limiting my sleep.)

So here I am, counting my days until summer freedom comes to an end. I’m still praying that my school decides to give us an extra week (or even better, month) at the last minute, but my spidey sense tells me that it’s not happening.