1. Starting off the school year with a killer one-shoulder bag.
The more ~alt~ you were, the more patches you had.
2. Spending your last days of summer rearranging your Myspace Top 8.
3. Tearing the looks out of Teen People or Teen Vogue for outfits you wanted to try.
How else would we know what to wear at school this year?
4. Begging your parents for a monogram bag to wear with every ensemble...
Shoving tiny bags into our armpits was our favorite pastime.
5. ...and if you were super lucky, you got ~THE ONE~.
6. But if you were too cool for monogram bags, then picking up one of these for your keys and cash.
It was also the perfect way to show off your BRAND-NEW driver's license.
7. Buying about 99% of your back-to-school clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch.
If your graphic tee had a giant cut down the front, you were sooo on-trend.
8. And grabbing a few tees that weren’t really school appropriate.
Or life appropriate, TBH.
9. Then carefully saving the shopping bags so that you could cover your textbooks with them.
10. If you shopped for jeans at the mall, these were your go-to low-rise, flared jeans of choice.
They were also probably 2 inches too long and dragged everywhere.
11. ...But if you were hella bougie, you got the good stuff.
You'd do basically anything to get that iconic logo on the front pocket.
12. Begging your parents for your own personal Dell desktop for school reasons, obviously.
13. Going to your local sporting goods store to pick up some Soffe shorts for gym class, but really you wore them to all your classes.
14. You'd add a couple of fresh Paul Frank pieces to your tee collection.
15. Getting a clear, slip-front binder to collage the fuck out of.
16. Going to Target or the drug store to stock up on shimmery white eyeshadow to wear with lip gloss every single day.
17. Begging your mom to take you to the salon to get chunky highlights.
18. Getting a Mystic spray tan to convince everyone you had an amazing summer.
19. And if your parents didn't give you permission for the spray tan, than slathering yourself in this smelly stuff:
20. Trying to snag a Tiffany's charm necklace to show everyone how cool you were that year.
But we all knew which ones were fake. :(
21. But if you couldn't get a Tiffany necklace, then rocking the hell out of a PacSun puka shell necklace.
22. Asking your parents to buy you a case of blank CDs to burn schoolwork on. (But really it was just to burn all your friend's/sister's/brother's/literally whoever's CDs so you could build an amazing car music collection.)
23. Finding ribbons to wrap a bow around the tucked bun you'd wear almost every day of the school year.
24. Picking up a fresh new Juicy Tube for the school year.
25. Learning all the hacks on your TI-83 before class starts so you could show off to your friends.
26. Buying several color-clashing Hollister polos to wear layered, or just on their own.
27. And grabbing brand new foam flip-flop platform sandals in multiple colors — even if you could only wear them for two weeks before the weather got bad.
You had to get a new pair since your summer ones were all worn down and gross.
28. Making sure you had lots of these Listerine strips to stash in your purse, locker, and backpack.
29. Asking your parents for a brand-new phone — preferably a flip phone with A CAMERA.
30. Figuring out what your "signature scent" would be the upcoming semester.
And trying to make sure it wasn't one your BFFs wore.
31. Adding some variety to your scents with Victoria's Secret body sprays.
32. Using back-to-school shopping as an excuse to buy lots of Victoria's Secret thongs.
33. Buying locker organizers and accessories 'cause this year you wanted to personalize it and make everyone envy it.
LOL, then really never using any of it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
34. Adding metallic Sharpies to your back-to-school supplies list, even though you knew you'd never use them for school work.
35. Buying a few packs of these 'cause you told yourself you'd be more organized this semester.
36. Making sure your composition books were colorful AF.
37. And finally, selecting the perfect brand-new AOL screen name 'cause your old one was just not you anymore.
