Kids Today Will Never Know The Joy Of The First Day Of School In The 2000s
Let me take you back to the 2000s. August was coming to a close, your friendship bracelets had fallen off, and your hair was yellow from Sun-In. The most glorious time of the year was over.
Disney Channel
But that meant it was time to return to school! Sure, this was somewhat disappointing, but it also meant you got to see all your friends and experience all the glorious things school had to offer!
If you ever feel nostalgic for back-to-school, then these 83 images will CERTAINLY get the nostalgia going.
1. First off, you had to get ready for your day. Which meant picking out one of these killer parts:
Patterned parts from nostalgia
2. Then you'd want to scrunch your hair with some hair gel (Dep or LA Girl).
Dep hair gel. from nostalgia
3. If you were REALLY cool, you had some hair jewels.
4. But most of us just had butterfly clips.
5. Or these classic clips and hair elastics.
6. Though you may just go for a crochet cap or some colored hair streaks to go with your floral, zebra, and snake print outfits.
7. Unless, of course, you were lucky enough to have new merch from Delia's and Paul Frank.
8. Stick-on earrings were ALL the rage.
9. Or if you had your ears pierced, you could go with these weird jelly-like earrings from Claire's.
10. If you'd just gone on vacation, you were definitely flexing it with some hair beads.
Every kid came back to school after vacation with their hair braided with beads in it. from nostalgia
11. Your parents didn't let you wear makeup, but this stuff was basically just candy.
12. Or maybe you snuck on some glitter after you left the house.
13. You couldn't forget to rock your Livestrong bracelet!
14. Finally, you'd leave for school — but not until your mom took a pic of you starting a new grade!
Does anyone else remember their parents making them a first day of school sign each year? from nostalgia
15. You probably took the bus, which had a very specific smell you've probably never smelled again. If you were cool, you sat near the back.
16. Nothing felt better than entering the school and running your fingers along the wall.
17. There was always that moment of panic when you tried to find your locker and struggled to open the lock.
18. There was also the sweet, sweet relief of finding your fave cold water fountain after walking through the heat.
19. Though you may have had to walk outside to some modulars.
20. When you got into the classroom, you almost definitely had this lining the walls, even if it'd been a LONG time since you learned the alphabet.
21. Though as you got older, it probably changed to cursive letters.
22. You'd excitedly pull out your new Lisa Frank binder...
23. ...Or your Trapper Keeper...
If you weren’t sporting one of these on the first day of school you didn’t know the meaning of style from nostalgia
24. ...Or, if you were older, your colored binders, which were carefully color coded to each subject.
25. Receiving new textbooks was always very exciting — mostly because you were already brainstorming how to decorate the paper bag covers you planned to make for them.
26. But the best part of new textbooks? Opening your spankin' new pencil box...
27. ...Grabbing your fave Milky Pen...
28. ...And writing your name inside the front cover.
29. Pretty soon you'd probably get bored, and start filling your new notebooks with drawings...
30. ...Getting up to loudly sharpen your pencil just to have something to do...
31. ...(Which was especially fun when it was a manual one)...
32. ...And, of course, giving yourself fake shots.
33. The lessons were simple in those early days...
34. ...When math was done with colorful chips...
35. ...And lego-like cubes.
36. Though of course, the fun was over when the teacher slid one of these drills onto your desks to test how well you'd studied over the summer.
37. And I'm pretty sure my first experiences with serious anxiety begun when the teacher would pull out the projector to show us the answers.
38. It was always a relief to use calculators.
39. Especially because you could write fun (and sometimes inappropriate) messages to your friends on them.
40. Computer class was always one of the best parts of the day. You could play Type to Learn...
Type To Learn from nostalgia
41. ...Math Blasters...
I spent way too many hours playing "Math Blaster" during computer class in elementary school from nostalgia
42. ...Or draw on Kid Pix. All were solid options.
43. But lunchtime was when the day really got fun. Since it was still warm out, you probably got to sit outside on these iconic tables.
44. It was always amazing to check out the menu for the month.
45. You definitely immediately circled all the pizza days...
46. ...And pizza crust stick-thingies days. No, I don't have a better name for these.
47. There really was nothing like bagged milk.
48. Maybe you were someone who brought lunch from home! If you were lucky, your parents packed Lunchables.
Nacho lunchable- I swear these used to have a big slot for the salsa and a small slot for cheese from nostalgia
49. ...And some Ritz Handi-Snacks...
50. ...And, most importantly, a Kudos bar.
51. Even if you brought lunch, you may have packed a few dollars to buy dessert: like a giant cookie, or these delicious Choco Tacos.
52. Afterwards, you'd head out to the wooden playground, where you'd almost 100% get splinters and get burned on metal slides.
Wooden Playground: Despite scorching hot metal slides and rubber bridges - we always went back for more... from nostalgia
53. There was nothing like the crunch of wood chips under your sneakers.
54. Or maybe you were more of a blacktop person. You might have played some foursquare...
55. Or hung out around the hopscotch and painted map.
56. At least for me, the best part of the day was library.
57. Where we could catch up on any new Magic Tree House books...
58. ...And Goosebumps...
Goosebumps from nostalgia
59. ...Or maybe check out I Spy books...
60. ...Or just spend the whole time reading the Guinness World Records books.
61. I didn't even mind when they handed us a new reading log for our first week.
62. If you were really lucky, the teacher would break out these bad boys for the first gym class of the year.
Gym Scooters from nostalgia
63. Or the ropes!
64. But most likely, you were just playing kickball.
65. Or maybe you were jump roping.
66. Though you probably had to sit down and listen to what to expect for the year first. You were either focusing on shoe streaks on the floor...
Rubbing up shoe streaks with your fingers while sitting on the gym floor in PE class. from nostalgia
67. ...Or staring up at the balls stuck in the ceiling.
68. Inevitably, someone would be wearing tearaway pants for when it got too hot.
69. Music class was definitely the most unsanitary time of the day.
70. Unless you were rockin' out on the glockenspiel...
71. ...Or those egg shaker thingies...
72. ...Or literally just hitting sticks together.
Anyone remember these from Primary school? Rhythms sticks (claves). I remember sitting cross legged in a circle clacking rhythms with classmates! Not sure if schools still have them? from nostalgia
73. If you were lucky and had some extra time at the end of class, the teacher might end the day with Seven Up.
74. Afterwards, you'd hop back on the bus or that awesome back-facing backseat of your mom's car...
The after school carpool special offering limited rear end collision protection plus undesired eye contact with every driver from nostalgia
75. ...And rush home to talk about the day on AIM.
AIM - I still remember the door opening and closing sounds when somebody used to log in or out. from nostalgia
76. You'd go to town downloading songs from Limewire or Napster.
77. And catch new episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
78. Or TRL, if you were really cool.
79. Or maybe you just wanted to play some Sims.
80. Or Neopets!
81. Or play Bubble Frenzy or Snood on your dad's computer.
Bubble Frenzy from nostalgia
