Back to School Isn’t Just for Kids: Celebrate a Fresh Start With the Back to School Coloring Contest
There’s something about back-to-school season that has always felt like a fresh beginning. New notebooks, freshly sharpened pencils, new teachers, new classrooms, new routines. There’s excitement in the air, but if I’m being truthful, there can be a little uncertainty mixed in there too.
When I was younger, especially when I was preparing to attend a new school, I used to have the strangest dreams. In one of them, I would arrive at school and suddenly realize that I wasn’t wearing any socks. That was apparently a crisis to my sleeping brain. In another recurring dream, I would arrive on campus and discover that I hadn’t registered for any of my classes. Everyone else had their schedules and knew where they were going, and there I was wandering around trying to figure out where I belonged.
The funny thing is that the actual first day of school would come, and eventually everything would be fine. I’d get my schedule, find my classrooms, meet people, learn the hallways, and settle into a rhythm. The thing that once felt unfamiliar would eventually become normal.
Looking back, I think those dreams were about much more than school.
New Beginnings Can Feel Uncomfortable
There is often an awkward little space between deciding to begin something and actually feeling comfortable there. Maybe you’re starting a new school year, beginning a new job or business, learning something you've always wanted to learn, or entering a new season in your family, relationships, creativity, or personal life.
Sometimes it can seem like everyone else already has their schedule while you're still standing in the hallway trying to figure out where you're supposed to go. But life has a funny way of balancing itself out. We adjust. We learn what we're doing. We find our people. We discover things we're good at and other things that require a little more work. Eventually, we find our way, even if we didn't have everything figured out when we started.
Even if we showed up without our proverbial socks.
We Never Really Graduate From Learning
That’s one of the things I love about this season. Back-to-school time may revolve around children and college students, but I think the idea behind it belongs to all of us. There is always room to learn, grow, and elevate.
We don't have to be sitting behind a desk to be students of our own lives. Sometimes learning means picking up a new skill. Sometimes it means discovering something about ourselves or having the courage to try again after something didn't work the first time. Sometimes we simply realize that we've outgrown something and it's time to move forward.
And maybe we don't have to have everything figured out before we begin.
Growth doesn't always have to be quite so serious, either. Sometimes it looks like making something, playing, creating, or sitting around a table with people you love and doing something simply because you enjoy doing it.
That's actually part of what inspired something fun I've created for this back-to-school season.
Introducing the Anitra Jay Back-to-School Coloring Contest
I wanted to find a way for us to celebrate the spirit of a fresh start together, so I'm hosting a Back-to-School Coloring Contest.
I originally started thinking about this as something fun for the kids, but somewhere along the way I thought, why should they get all the fun? So I've created two coloring collections. There's one for kids and another with more intricate designs specifically for adults.
You can download one or both. Maybe you gather everybody around the kitchen table and color together. Maybe you invite a friend over and make an evening of it. Or maybe you wait until the house gets quiet, put on some good music, grab your colored pencils, pour yourself something you enjoy, and spend a little time creating by yourself.
There really isn't a right way to do it. I just want this to be an excuse to make a little room for creativity.
And Yes, There’s a Prize!
Once you've finished your masterpiece, you can submit one completed page from either of the official coloring packets to enter the contest. Each person can submit one entry, and parents and guardians are welcome to submit an entry on behalf of a child, so this can truly be something the whole family participates in.
One lucky winner will receive a $50 Walmart Back-to-School Gift Card, and we'll celebrate the winner through my email community and social media after the contest closes.
[DOWNLOAD THE COLORING PACKETS + JOIN THE CONTEST]
A Little Permission to Play Again
Of course, I'd love for you to enter the contest, but I hope something else happens along the way too. I hope this gives you an excuse to do something creative without worrying about whether it's productive or whether you're particularly good at it.
Maybe somebody's kitchen table ends up covered in crayons. Maybe a parent decides to color beside their child instead of simply handing over the coloring pages. Maybe some friends turn it into an evening together. Maybe somebody who hasn't colored in years sits down with the adult packet and realizes, "Oh, I forgot how much I enjoy this."
I think we need those kinds of moments too. Life asks us to be responsible and productive so much of the time that it can be easy to forget that creativity doesn't always have to accomplish something. Sometimes making something just because you enjoy making it is enough. Sometimes that counts as self-care too.
So whether you're heading back to a classroom, sending children off to begin another school year, pursuing something new yourself, or simply stepping into a fresh season of life, I want to wish you a successful and adventurous year ahead.
There's always something left for us to learn. There's always room to grow and to elevate. And we don't necessarily need to know exactly where we're going before we take that first step.
So here's to new classrooms, whatever those classrooms happen to look like in this season of your life. Keep learning, keep growing, and keep becoming.
And if you happen to show up without your socks, I have a feeling you'll figure that out too.
Happy back-to-school season!
