Salmon, Burnt Sienna, Dandelion, Periwinkle

This week was my first week of the Fall semester, and this semester marks my 10 bajillionth semester of college. This is a true story.

For so long, the prospect of a new semester incited in me great plans for the coming year. At least I thought they were great. These plans revolved mostly around who I would sit with at lunch - a matter that's taken pretty seriously well into high school. I showed up that first day of Kindergarten (after the crying and separation anxiety) freshly pressed and coiffed alongside other kids with hair parted and ponytailed and shirts tucked until recess. We eyed each others' cartoon lunch boxes.

College is no different. Just substitute "identity" for "lunch box" and you get the idea. After several bajillion years of this, it's just too much. I've spent enough on tuition and books. Is it too much to ask for an education without all the asserting of self and differentness and Socialist club meetings? I am a tired undergrad. Over the hill. Just give me my degree already and set me out to pasture.

So instead of buying the 64-pack of crayons and a new pencil box this year, I went with the $30 HP financial calculator, the $230 Management Information Systems Textbook bundle, two French review textbooks - $120 not sold separately, $150 in online texts, and several grand above my tuition to cover the coronary I'm gonna have when this is all over.