How To Capture The Nostalgic Feeling of Back-To-School As An Adult

Preparing for Fall (semester), and how to get the Back-To-School feeling. We’re getting organized!

Running around in the Mexican sun with my cousins and the neighborhood kids, playing hide-and-seek until the streetlights came on. Buying chips or candy from the little corner store to tide us over until dinner. That’s how I spent my summers as a kid. And every year, as summer wore on, the days got a little bit shorter and evenings got a bit cooler.

It was a bittersweet time. It meant the summer of freedom was ending, but it was also time for my favorite thing in the world: back-to-school season!! I could NOT WAIT to go shopping for new school supplies and clothes. I love school/office supplies and stationery. Always have. I cannot explain the rush I got seeing a pack of pencils on sale for 99 cents.

It was also bittersweet, because as much as I looked forward to being in the classroom again and reading over the class syllabus for each period, I still remember the dread. I remember being so anxious and nervous every single year when I had to go to the school to pick up my new school ID. I’ve had social anxiety since I was a young kid. I was not good at making friends — as if being a kid, and later, a teen in school, wasn’t already hard enough.

Thankfully, I’ve grown a lot in adulthood and the social anxiety has lessened. And I never have to go back to school again! That’s both good and baaaad, because I really miss that back-to-school prep and anticipation…and, new school supplies every season, of course!

However, there are a few ways to capture that nostalgic feeling of the season, even as an adult.

Renewed focus

As Autumn approaches (my favorite season) and summer is winding down, we naturally want to get back into routine and renew our focus. It’s a time for organizing and resetting.

Getting organized

• Clean/rearrange your desk. It can be hard to think with messiness and clutter around. ¹

• Gather your supplies and put them in a cute basket near your desk. The point is to have what you need at hand when you need it.

• We’re going to be learning this Fall, so choose what to take notes on (notebook, iPad, etc), and your note-taking method.

• Rearrange/organize a part of your home that really needs it.

Routines & Goals

• Reassess your routines. Does something need to change? Maybe going to bed at an earlier time?²

  • Incorporate something into your Fall routine that helps you slow down e.g. brewing a cup of tea in the evenings, taking a few minutes to write out scripture, or doing some stretching.

• This is a great time to revisit our goals and adjust where needed.

• Make meal prepping part of your routine if possible. It makes weekdays easier and gives you one less thing to think about.

• Evaluate whether your productivity system is working for you. If not, give it a refresh. I highly recommend checking out Redeeming Productivity!³

Learning & growth

The Fall season feels like a time for learning and growth, even if we’re not in school. Last year, I shared how we can pretend we’re still in school with personal curriculums and dark academia vibes:

Autumn Academia - all the dark academia vibes to help you pretend you're in school & embrace learning 📚🍂🕯️📝

Personal curriculums

Crafting your own personal curriculum is such a satisfying way of basically choosing and organizing what you’ll be studying/learning/researching/working on. I really like the 2 videos below on this topic. They can explain it much better than I can.

Back to Bible study

I co-lead a women’s bible study at my church every Fall and also Winter/Spring. It’s great for staying consistent and keeping in the rhythm of Scripture intake and study, but Summer can often disrupt that rhythm. So, now is a great time to refocus and pick a new Bible study to get back into routine.

• I recommend Bible studies from The Daily Grace Co. They’re beautiful and gospel-centric. I’m not at all affiliated with them (that would be a dream!), I just really like them.

• Pick a study method: a popular one is the S.O.A.P. method. I like the C.O.M.A. method, but any inductive bible study method is good.

• Grab your highlighters, pens, prayer journal, whatever!

Hobbies

• Start a commonplace notebook — for keeping all your favorite quotes, lyrics, poems, recipes, etc. in one place. I have a post on how I use Apple Notes as my digital commonplace notebook planned!

• Reading journal — to keep track of the books you read, quotes and thoughts pertaining to each book, ratings, book reviews

• cozy hobbies — we all need something to do during those dark hours of the day⁴ when it’s cold and rainy. There’s many “cozy” slow hobbies to try! e.g. knitting, crossword puzzles and word searches, painting, working with clay, journaling, etc.

Back-to-school shopping for adults

The FUN part! I mean….most fun, since it’s all fun. Right? It’s not all about buying new things every single season and consumerism, but if you’re like me, shopping for new school supplies was one of your favorite things as a kid 🤓 So, in order to capture that nostalgia, here are a few things for you to consider buying this season:

1. Paperage notebooks — the quality of this A5 notebook surprised me, especially for the price. I have one in my desk drawer that comes in super handy when I need to jot something down or make a to-do list! They come in many different colors and are available lined, dotted, grid, and blank.

2. Food storage containers for meal prep — this set of 8 glass food storage containers in different sizes is sooo helpful for meal prep and storing leftovers. I only use glass or stainless steel food containers now. Ditch the plastic! Much healthier and sustainable.

3. Kindle (Matcha) — as much as I absolutely adore paperbacks, I love my little Kindle, too. Especially this Matcha color! And because it’s small, it even fits in my Brixley crossbody bag. As someone who wants to read ALL the books, but also has tendonitis, my Kindle is essential. Because it’s thin and lightweight, I can read a long time without my hands and wrists hurting.

4. Brixley crossbody bag (and also super cute backpacks & tote bags)— this little crossbody bag has become my favorite bag! I have it in two colors. It fits all my essentials (including my Kindle, as mentioned above), and is small enough to not be in the way. One of my favorite features of this bag is the card slots for easy access to my debit cards and ID. So convenient!

5. Blackwing pencils — yes, these pencils are priii.cey. But if you love the handwriting experience, you’ll appreciate these Japanese Blackwing pencils. Before I got one, I had heard people talking about how once they tried one of these pencils they couldn’t go back to any old pencil. Yeah, right! A pencil is a pencil. I was wrong.

6. Ikea RÅSKOG utility cart — this cart is perfect for organizing and containing all of your supplies to have nearby. I have one right next to my desk. I attached one of the smaller pegboards from IKEA to one side of it to hold even more stuff. It holds my planner, most of my art supplies, pens, highlighters, sticky notes…all the things!

*I HAVE to mention here JetPens for some awesome Japanese stationery + writing tools. And Papier makes the most gorgeous notebooks, planners, & stationery. Offe Market sells discounted excess and overstock inventory from brands like Lee, Harper Wilde, P.F. Candle Co. and Papier, to name a few.

Tiny ways to reset, refresh, & refocus

• pick a mug and/or tea as your go-to for the season — one of my go-to teas for Fall is Caramel Crème Brûlée from Portal Tea Company. I also love the Maple Espresso Black Tea from Trader Joe’s. Either one of those in my pumpkin-shaped mug gives me all the Fall feels 🎃🫖🍂☕️🍁

• seasonal candle - another way to help your brain shift into Fall mode is through scent. Scent is so closely tied to memory and feelings, it’s fascinating. My favorite is the Vanilla Pumpkin candle from Trader Joe’s.

• bring out Fall decor/textiles you already have — as fun and enticing as it is, we don’t have to shop for new decor each season. I try to use as much of what I already have as possible. And I try to avoid Target at all times! HAHA.⁵

• bring out all the sweaters! — unfortunately, here in the PNW, it’s still too warm for sweaters, but I can still take them out of my under the bed drawers to air out and smooth out any wrinkles.

• picking some books to read for the Fall/winter — even if you don’t do the whole personal curriculum thing, you can still get into the “back-to-school” spirit by picking your Autumn reading list. Even just 2-3 books to keep on your coffee table or nightstand that you can grab when you need a reading session.

• refresh and clean your devices (new wallpaper and/or case) - such a small and simple way to reset and refresh, but effective! I like switching out my iPhone and iPad cases for something more Autumnal. I just go for darker, moodier colors. And a seasonal wallpaper (lock screen) each time I pick up my devices gives me a tiny hit of dopamine.

• change your calendar colors — another small thing to do that doesn’t take much time, but can make a difference. Whether you use Google Calendar or Apple Calendar, changing the colors of your calendars is easy and makes for a more fun and aesthetic experience. This YT short shows you how to do it.

  • If you need ideas for color palettes, I highly recommend using Coolors! It randomly generates color palettes (with HEX codes you can copy and paste), but also gives you a palette based on any color you pick. It’s such a fun tool. And they have such a cool effect on their homepage! I audibly gasped when I saw it 😂 Here’s a screenshot:

What feelings and memories does this Back-To-School season bring for you? Are you excited for Fall or sad that summer is ending?

P.S. Today is my birthday. Fifteen yr-old me could not fathom possibly ever being 30, and now I’m 36 😂

I have a request: if you haven’t already, please check out my Help Hope Live fundraising campaign. In 2017 I was hit by a freight train and lost my legs. I’m now trying to raise funds to have a surgery which will allow me to hopefully have a fuller life and one that feels more “normal.” You can share the campaign and donate, if you feel so led 🤎

One More Chapter:

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1. I should know — my desk right now is full of stuff for a project I started and haven’t finished. This post is taking me a while to write! 😅

2. 🙋🏻‍♀️ that’d be me…I need to do this..

3. Reagan Rose talks about and shares resources for productivity from a Christian worldview

4. you know, when it’s only 5PM but outside it looks like its 9PM :(

5. that Target dollar spot just sucks me in whenever I’m there, especially during Fall and the holidays. so many cute and cheap things!