How to Enjoy the Back-to-School Season (No Kids Required)

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: September. For those of us in the North, the leaves begin to change, the days shorten, and it's time to begin scheduling all the work we need to do to get ready for winter. In the South, people finally emerge from their air-conditioning and harvest their late season garden. Everywhere, theater groups and symphonies begin their seasons and 15-pound editions of fashion magazines are stuffed with cool weather looks

September is the month of beginnings, of new starts, of changes. (Really, it, not January, ought to be the the New Year.) While a bit of that is due to the shifting weather, that's not really the root - October is far more of a dramatic change from summer throughout the US. No, September has that edge of excitement because for over a century, it has been the beginning of the school year. 

For almost every adult raised in America, September meant a new lunch box, a stack of school supplies, and meeting new kids while you played kickball during recess. It meant new clothes for school, (which might have been bought at Neiman-Marcus or hand-me-downs from your cousin.) It meant that first field trip of the year. Even today, you feel it - that lift you get when you see the first bright yellow schoolbus coming down the street. (You have a different feeling when you're stuck behind the bus.)

So how do we grown-ups, many of whom are not only past our own school days, but past our kid's school days, recapture that delicious sense of novelty and starting again? I'm glad you asked that, Julia, because I have a few suggestions. 

1. Get a lunch box. Really. You know you ought to be taking your lunch to work anyway. It's healthier than take-out and will save you a bundle of money. Go for one of the modern kind, with the flaps and zippers and special compartments for ice packs and resealable boxes. Or, hop on eBay and finally snag the Dating Game lunch box you always wanted but your mother wouldn't buy for you. I guarantee, if you show up with a Six Million Dollar Man or a Monkees lunchbox, you'll hear from coworkers you've never spoken to before.

2. Organize your school supplies. Collect the pencils you have stashed in half a dozen drawers, sharpen them and put them in a can or jar. As my 6th grade teacher said, "A sharp pencil means a sharp mind." You'll feel smarter just looking at all those points. Unearth the crayons and markers you have hiding hither and yon. Smell that marker smell! (But not too much - in school the rumor was it caused brain damage.) If you're feeling ambitious, a school-year planner is just the thing - it begins in August and runs through 18 months, so you can really plan ahead.

3. Go to gym class. Let's face it, if you want to join a gym/fitness center/YMCA, this month is a lot better than January. Do you actually want to slog through some of the worst weather of the year to see yourself, pale as a fish belly, in fluorescent lights? No. No, you don't. Go now, when you drive there with the car window rolled down and you still have a bit of that summer glow.

Health club membership not in the budget? September and October are the best months for walking, hiking, and running outdoors, according to US News and World Report. (Unless you're experiencing a hurricane. Do not hike in a hurricane.) If you're not a fan of nature, there are dozens and dozens of free exercise videos on YouTube, teaching you everything from dance cardio and  martial arts to Yoga and Tai Chi.

4. Get a new school outfit. I don't know about the rest of you, but in my family, unless you outgrew or destroyed something, September was when we kids got all our clothing for the year. My mother was the Queen of bargain-shopping, and I can still remember the thrill of the hunt - finding the perfect pair of jeans or top or sweater marked down by 70 percent!! You don't need to break the bank to get the feeling again - Youngest and I went back-to-school shopping for her and I bought a new pair of sneakers for myself. Now, that doesn't sound like much, but as many of us of a (ahem) certain age find, I simply don't get myself new clothing or shoes very often. (In fact, most of my friends my age are focused on getting rid of excess items in the closet.) So picking up some fun new footwear, for no other reason than I liked it, was a blast.

I have a friend who grew up in very straitened circumstances who never, ever had new clothing for the new school year. Now she's all grown up and makes a comfortable living, she buys herself a complete, head-to-toe new outfit every fall. It's never too late to strut your stuff in front of the other kids.

5. Take a field trip. The Lonely Planet Guide says September is the best month for travel, and it's easy to see why. Everyone who still has kids is staying close to home for school, leaving tourist areas that were jammed in August delightfully free. In many places, September is part of the "rump season," with reduced, off-peak prices. And of course, the weather is pretty wonderful (again, excepting hurricanes.)

Of course, field trips were supposed to be educational. Consider going to one of the local museums or historic houses you never  get to (why leave the best experiences for the tourists?) Get a couple friends together and spend Saturday walking thorough art galleries. (I've done this before, and we all found it incredibly creatively stimulating.) City dwellers can hit up the zoo, take a walking tour, visit the theater or symphony hall (In Portland, several organizations have reduced price tickets for pre-opening night dress rehearsals, which might be more educational than seeing the finished performance.) As an adult, you'll probably get more out of it than you did as a school child - in my case, the gift shop and lunch were always the highlights of any place we visited.

Okay, dear readers, now it's your turn. What are your suggestions for recapturing the excitement of September? And do you have fond memories and good stories to share about your own start-of-school experiences?