And all those new school supplies!

Stacks of paper lined with faint turquoise lines and notebooks filled with pages that had a newspaper feel and a creamy color. I don’t remember ever carrying a book bag, just a short stack of books.

But more than anything, September and new beginnings remind me for whatever reason of something my dad always said: “Nothing is wasted. No experience, good or bad. Every small thing you do or learn will add to your life in some way.”

And so if I ever came home saying, “that was a waste of time,” my father would gently admonish me. “Nothing,” he reminded me, “is a waste of time.”

I’m thinking of that now, in this time of new beginnings.

Dad was right. Imagine that.