Back to School, Beth Style — Memories, Mom Moments & Why Teachers Deserve Everything

It’s that time of year again.

The school supply displays are taking over every store in Blount County. I just wish the air has that almost-fall feeling creeping in around the edges. I guess the year-around schedule has killed that for all of us. Kids everywhere are simultaneously dreading and secretly kind of excited about what’s coming.

And me? I have feelings about all of it. A lot of them.

Back to School season hits differently when you’ve lived as many versions of it as I have — as a kid in Maryville, as a mom watching my own children walk through those doors, and now as someone whose stepdaughter is on the other side of the classroom shaping little lives every single day.

So grab your coffee. This one’s personal.

---

Little Beth — Sam Houston Elementary

I went to Sam Houston Elementary right here in Maryville, and if you want to know the honest truth about what I looked forward to most at back to school time — it was not the academics.

It was the school supplies.

Specifically — the Trapper Keeper.

If you know, you know. If you don’t know, I’m not sure we can be friends. I joke. We can. I’m not sure how, but we can. There was something about cracking open a brand new Trapper Keeper, organizing all your new folders into it, and walking into school like you had your entire life together at age eight. The smell of new crayons, fresh notebook paper, a box of sharpened pencils — I lived for all of it.

But the real back to school tradition in the our house? My mom made fried chicken on the first day of school.

Every year. Without fail. I don’t know when it started or why it started but it was sacred. to me. I would come home from my first day — new backpack, new shoes, brain full of new classroom smells — and there was fried chicken waiting for me.

---

Teenage Beth — Maryville High School

I went to Maryville High School — home of the Rebels — and I’m going to be honest with you the way I’m always honest with you.

I didn’t love high school.

I know you’re supposed to say it was the best years of your life and all of that. But it just wasn’t my season. And that’s okay. Not every chapter of life is your favorite one — and sometimes the chapters that feel the hardest are the ones that quietly build you into who you’re supposed to be.

What I will say is this — if high school wasn’t your favorite either, you are in very good company. And look at us now.

---

College Beth — Get Good Walking Shoes

If I could give one piece of advice to every student heading to UT Knoxville or Maryville College for the very first time right now it would be this:

Get good walking shoes. The campus is huge.

Seriously. Nobody tells you this. You will be walking more than you have ever walked in your life and your feet will not forgive you if you show up in the wrong shoes. This is not a drill.

Beyond that — college back to school is a completely different feeling from anything that came before it. There’s an independence to it, a freshness, a sense that you are finally starting a chapter that is entirely your own. Even the nervousness feels different — more like excitement wearing a disguise.

If your student is heading to campus this fall, hold onto this moment. It goes faster than you think.

---

And Speaking of College — A Note for the Parents

If your child is heading to UT Knoxville or Maryville College — or anywhere else in this area — and you haven’t figured out the housing piece yet, let me tell you something important:

You’re probably already behind on the timeline. And that’s okay — but let’s fix it now.

Housing near campus goes fast. Inventory is limited and the good options don’t sit around waiting. If you’re just now starting to think about it, this is your sign to pick up the phone today.

Here’s something else most parents don’t consider until it’s too late — if you have more than one student planning to attend the same school, it often makes more financial sense to purchase a home near campus rather than rent. When your student charges rent to their roommates, those payments go toward your mortgage instead of a landlord’s pocket. Your student builds equity. You reduce the financial burden. Everybody wins.

The math on this surprises people every single time I walk them through it.

Whether you’re buying or renting, whether your student is a freshman or a junior, I would love to help you figure out the right plan. That’s exactly what I’m here for — and it’s what my Knoxville City Lifestyle partnership is all about this month.

Call me. Let’s run the numbers together.
yourbethlife.com/contact

---

Mom Beth — The Chapter I Wasn’t Ready For

Then I became a mom to Brody, Sam, and Ellen — and back to school took on a whole new meaning.

It stopped being about me and started being about three little people who needed me to hold it together even when I absolutely was not holding it together.

I’ll tell you the one that got me.

Ellen’s first day of kindergarten.

I kept it together in the parking lot. I kept it together walking her in. I kept it together through the hugs and the “have a great day baby” and the brave smile I put on so she wouldn’t see my lip trembling.

I made it back to my car.

And then I completely fell apart.

Every parent reading this knows exactly what I’m talking about. There is no preparing for that particular moment. You just survive it and then you drive home and you cry in your driveway and then you pull yourself together because there’s a whole day to get through.

And then somehow — impossibly — they grow up. Brody, Sam, and Ellen are proof that it all goes way too fast. Soak it in, mama. Every single first day.

---

For the Teachers — This Section is All Yours

I need to take a moment and say something that I don’t think gets said loudly enough or often enough.

Teachers — I see you. I genuinely do not know how you do what you do. The preparation, the patience, the love you pour into classrooms full of other people’s children every single day — and then you go home and do it all again the next day. I could not do your job for one day. Not one.

My stepdaughter Kelsey teaches Pre-K in Georgia and she has shown me up close just how much of themselves teachers give. I love sending her Play-Doh because I know how quickly those little things disappear in a classroom and how much it means when someone thinks to replenish them.

Now, that sweet little kindergartener that I cried over just a few short years ago, Ellen, she is currently working on her Masters in School Counseling. See mamas, I told you it goes fast.

Which brings me to something I want to do — and I want YOU to be part of it.

---

🍎 THE TEACHER WISH LIST DRAWING 🍎

I know how limited classroom budgets are. Teachers spend their own money on their students every single year without being asked and without complaining about it. That ends here — at least for a few of you.

Here’s what we’re doing:

Drop your Amazon Wish List link in the comments of this blog post. Every teacher who shares their list will be entered into a drawing. I will personally select 10 teachers from the list and contribute to their classroom myself.

And I’m asking every single person who reads this post to go into those comments, pick a teacher, and buy one thing off their list. Just one thing. A box of crayons. A pack of Play-Doh. A pack of copy paper. Whatever you can do.

Imagine what this community could do together for our teachers this back to school season.

Teachers — drop your Amazon Wish List in the comments below. 👇

No list is too big. No ask is too small. You’ve given enough. Let us give something back.

— Beth