Insight

The only sales I want are in the bookstore

Sean G. Donovan
donova3@mscd.edu

Well folks, it's Back-To-School time and you know what that means, right? Of course you don't. You're in college now.

Block from your conscious memory the ads you see on TV, on the radio, and on the sides of buses reminding you to head to a certain store to buy all the things you need to "get back to school."

We don't need it!

Some of us haven't needed it for quite some time. The words "back-t0-school" no longer hold the same level of dread they did when we were slaves to the public school system. Now that phrase means we have to tell our bosses we can't be in until a certain time because we have class. Our world has changed. Maybe it's our age. Maybe it's our perspective. Whatever it is, it means something different to us now than a few years ago.

For some of us, high school was a long time ago and, the days of going with Mom to the mall for some new "Back- To-School clothes" seems like a distant memory. For others who are just joining the college scene after four blistering years of high school, this tradition might still be alive; but not for much longer. We have transcended the need to buy a new pair of pants and a new shirt to start off the school year.

College has made the majority of us very utilitarian in our shopping and spending habits. We no longer spend money for want (unless it's a really good happy hour); instead, we shop for need. This concept only becomes clear to us once we attend our first college classes.

We no longer feel the need to go school supply shopping anymore. When I began college-oh, so long ago-I went out and bought every kind of school supply I thought I would ever need. Less than a semester later, I returned to the store and bought a large plastic storage box to put said supplies in. In the utilitarian tradition, I found all I needed were pens and paper. Occasionally I'll dig out a highlighter, but there ended up being no need for a single-hole punch, an industrial stapler, a t-square, gallons of White-out, and the plethora of other useless junk that still occupies a small corner of my living space six years after the fact.

In truth, all we as college students need are pens and paper and maybe a small stapler.

That's it.

I walk into my local office-supply store and find the school-supply shopping lists for the local elementary, middle, and high schools and it reads like the inventory from a large company's supply room. My 16-year-old sister had to go out and buy three different kinds of highlighters last year because her teachers demanded it of her and the rest of her classmates.

But with the lack of expense of school supplies there comes other expenses. I about cried when I saw my first bill for college textbooks and the burden is not getting any lighter. Now, instead of buying a new pair of shoes for the first day of class, that money is earmarked for a copy of James Joyce's "Ulysses," as well as several dozen other titles that need to be procured before classes begin.

Instead of getting a new shirt I'll be spending that money on a supply of energy drinks to help me stay awake through all of my classes. Though this game I call 'college' is going into its sixth year for me, I still have a hard time staying awake through it all.

But, like everyone else, it's back to school I go. With books in hand, a gross of black pens at my disposal, and not much else. Welcome to the bare-bones approach to college. Leave the back-to-school shopping for the kiddies; we have work to do.