Schulenfang
Written by: Sabine Roggemeier; Gluecklich Im Sein
The first day of school I remember the best is my very first day of school. I was beyond excited to finally be a school kid. I have been curious my whole life, driving my mother insane with “why” questions as I was growing up. Now I would go to an institution where all my questions would be answered daily!
Oh, and the supplies I got! I still remember that red hardcover school satchel. The coolest feature was the yellow handle on it. When I would flip the metal clip at the side of the handle and then pick up my satchel I would see how many kilos I was carrying. I loved that about it! Then there was my pencil case, all new and shiny (which of course changed over time). It had pencils and markers and coloured pencils, an eraser and the essential ink pen. It was red, just like the satchel. (Can you tell what’s my favourite colour?) I was thrilled to finally learn how to properly write, cursive and all. For some reason, I always liked writing with an ink pen, something you do less and less as you grow up as ball pens usually replace it. As I love them so much though, I bought myself one a few years back. Funnily in my mind nowadays it’s reserved for writing special things, like my journal or birthday cards and such. Coming back to my first day of school there was another crucial piece to my school equipment. I don’t know how that works in North America but in Germany, you can’t go to school the first time without a school cone! Today they have fancy monsters, superheroes or Disney character ones, but in my day it was a simple yet nicely decorated cone filled with sweets, pencils and little toys. It was like a homemade Kinder surprise egg that every kid was excited about, comparing its content with that of the others around you. I vividly remember feeling it was taller than myself which, of course, didn’t prevent me from proudly carrying it to school.
My grandparents were also there that day. The neat fact was they lived not even two minutes away from my elementary school. So naturally, I would go visit them often after school, maybe even have lunch with them and spent the afternoon there. Actually I once unintentionally “abducted” one of my friends. I took her to visit my grandparents with me unbeknownst to my mother or hers. Imagine the uproar that created until finally my mother called my grandparents and found us there!
It was fun tuning into my little curious school-going me, especially as this week I started studying an online class again I had bought a while back. Learning new things feels as good and satisfying today as it did back then. It literally makes me feel alive!
