Back to the Future

Hello dear readers, yes it's me, the world's worst blogger. I won't make any excuses for my late entry... again. But you know, I do have one. Okay, I will tell you... I have gone back to school and am auditing a class at a local university here in Beirut. I know, I know, it's only one class. One hour, twice a week and I can't even update my blog once? You have a point. But hellooooo, did I not just say that I'm the world's worst blogger? Also, I am working on my second novel (which you all better buy... if it ever gets published) and that is taking up most of my writing time. All right, moving along...

So, like I said, I have started auditing a class and I am so enjoying being a student again. It's like a Back to the Future movie, except I'm still my age (bah humbug!). I don't try to look like a student or anything - I'm 38, the jig is up. But I honestly don't feel 20 years older than everyone else. It doesn't seem like so long ago that I was one of them. But it was; I was a student in the 1990s. Biologically, I could have given birth to one of these kids. Arrhhhhhh, I'm starting to hyperventilate!!! I'll just stop now.

So has anything changed since I was in college? Well, unlike some of these kids, I never carried my books around in an oversized Louis Vuitton or Balenciaga. My dad would have burned my check book and shredded my credit card if I spent over $1,000 on a school bag. Then he would have disowned me.  I also still use the traditional pen and paper in class. Mainly because I find it a lot easier to take notes the old fashioned way. Also because I'm lazy and can't be bothered to lug a laptop around.

But everything else is the same. Except I think now I have better hair and better dress sense. I would go so far as to say wayyyy better dress sense. When I was a freshman, for example, all the good times were taken by the upperclassmen and I was stuck with an 8am class MWF, so I would go wearing pajamas. Seriously. Not kidding. My roommate literally rolled out of bed, put on shoes, shoved a stick of gum in her mouth and went to class. I was classy, I brushed my teeth.

By sophomore year, I was able to avoid 8am classes so I looked pretty decent for class to kind of redeem myself for freshman year. Unfortunately, I was totally into the grunge look. I - gulp - wore clogs! Oh, that was hard to admit. But it's true. I wore clogs. With socks in the winter.

I also wore things like this:

I was so proud of my flannel shirt collection. If only I had just admired Kurt Cobain's music. But nooooo, I had to copy off his wardrobe too.







And this is how I dealt with my hair most mornings:

Don't judge me - I was actually considered quite stylish back then.







I think female Lebanese students would have a heart attack if they wore what I wore when I was in college. Funnily enough, I was called a good dresser. One sorority sister told me that I looked like I stepped out of an episode of the original 90210. That was a huge compliment. I had a poster of Jason Priestly above my bed in my dorm room. Another girl in my dorm thought I was some spoilt snob because a lot of my clothes were from Benetton. Yes, you read right, Benetton. Apparently, it was the Marc Jacobs of my day.

Yes, it feels like yesterday that I was some teen with a backpack on my shoulders and a final paper on my mind. Sometimes, when I look in the mirror I think yeah, I could pass for a college student again, you know, if I overlook the gray hairs, ignore the wrinkles and squint really hard... from a distance... in the dark. Yep, I could totally be 18 again!