Most adults look back on their years of schooling either with a great amount of fondness or with relief that their days of learning have passed. Children, too, are usually either lovers or haters of school and everything that comes with it. As I moved up the education ladder from elementary school to junior high to high school and then to college, one of the only things that kept me excited to be in school was the textbooks. Crazy, I know, but for some reason there was nothing I looked forward to at the start of a new year more than receiving my textbooks for that year.
For me, textbooks were full of possibility. They symbolized everything exciting about the year ahead. Receiving my textbooks was like receiving a fresh start. I could forget about all of the hours of homework and toil from the previous year. My mind wandered to the year ahead and all that would happen during it. Most of my excitement surrounded the assurance that school meant spending time with friends, maybe even meeting new friends, and getting to stay after school for sports or other fun activities.
It is true that my love of textbooks had very little to do with the books themselves or even with...