Confession: I often find that when I do the math, I am older than I think I am!

Ruminating about what I was going to write and compile for this week’s B-Front, it seemed liked only years ago that I graduated from high school. I was thinking about the palatial digs all these kids are going to high school as they enter any one of the four majestic buildings in Clemson, Liberty, Easley or Pickens.

I had the opportunity to tour the new EHS and walking the halls was more reminiscent of being in a museum than my old high school.

Beach High (that really is my alma mater’s name – Go Tides!) had what one might describe as an institutional feel: cinderblock building construction painted a drab sand color; dimly lit hallways; beat-up, dented in lockers; linoleum floors that had ferreted so many dirty sneakers to and fro no amount of bleach could make them look pristine.

We were lucky if there was a television in each room, and I don’t mean the flat screen variety. I can remember feeling like I had won the lottery if selected for the task of going to our library to check out the reel-to-reel film projector and wheel it, atop massive cart, back to whichever classroom I was in at the time.

Thinking about all this, I heard my voice echo in my head “I only graduated in 1994. That isn’t that long ago. Then I started doing the math in my head and, I won’t lie, on my fingers: Voila! My twenty year reunion is just around the corner.

Yep. Not only do I feel old, without the aid of an incredibly talented stylist, I would boast a fair amount of grey hair to prove this fact.

An old friend once told me that I was like a bottle of wine in that I only got better with age. I’ve chosen to ascribe to this theory.

While I might get older, there are still some things that never change. For me, one of those things is the excitement of Back to School.

A self-proclaimed nerd, I loved (I love) preparing for back to school. One of the neat things about having children is getting to relive exciting moments, such as these, with them.

Picking out book-bags, pencil boxes, binders, glue sticks, crayons, paper, and pencils was a thrill a minute. Getting home from Wal-Mart, putting all of the new supplies out on the kitchen table, organizing and packing them up always brings back fond memories for me.

I wish I were going back to school too.