“Hey, let’s stop by Barnes & Noble after dinner,” my sister said as she grabbed the keys. Mom, sister, and I left her newly-decorated dorm room and went to the nearest MBTA stop. It was hot but bearable. On our way to the stop, we crossed a bridge that led to the Charles River, which gleamed under the sunlight. The campus was hectic because of incoming students, but the city was ready for a seasonal change.

That was 10 years ago when I tagged along with my mom to Boston, Massachusetts to help my sister move in to a new dormitory that was called, the “Spanish House.” Being a single mom and an immigrant, she had no idea how to help my sister– the first one to ever go to college in America – move into a dorm. Observing the families on campus, she quickly learned that college students needed shower caddies, microwavable food, and easily-carryable laundry bags. I, too, did not know how this “college move in” culture worked and I casually followed my mom and sister as they figured out the process together. Here and there, hot and hungry, we poured some of our frustrations on each other, but we managed to navigate the move-in experience in Boston as a family.

Common in the Northeast, the dorms did not come with AC-in-unit, and her room was on level 4. Every time we climbed upstairs – carrying heavy boxes – we were out of breath and we cooled our bodies in front of the twenty-dollar fan that blew hot air and popped open the window for some airflow. After organizing the boxes, we went to Barnes and Noble where they blasted AC and we browsed through the college apparel section. “I wish we could stay here longer,” my mom stood near the exit door – hesitant to leave the air-conditioned space for another commute back to the Spanish House – all again, drenched in sweat and out of breath. The last few days of summer – right before Fall starts creeping in – are when parents travel within or outside of their home state to help their child move in and schools reopen for a new academic year. For me, whenever I think of Fall – not only do I associate the season with colorful gourds, crispy leaves, and smoky air – but also the experiences of moving into a new dormitory or apartment as a student.

By the time it was my turn to move in, my mom was a pro at packing and preparing her daughter for college. Unlike Boston, my dorm room came with AC. And, because the university was only 1 hour and 45 minutes away from home, the move-in process was only a day trip for the family. Regardless of how long it takes to help a child move in or if the rooms come with AC, the Back-to-School culture is a good indicator of seasonal change. Even before college, we went to Target (or Walmart during recession) with lists of school supplies on our hands and bought pencils, erasers, notebooks, and those flimsy paper folders, which ripped apart after three uses. Sometimes we ran into old school buddies in the Back-to-School sale section, which I pretended to be “busy” shopping and avoided them. A back-to-school conversation usually went like this.

Me: “Hey! How was your summer?” 

Schoolmate: “It was good. I went to Florida.”

Me: “Cool!”

Schoolmate: “What did you do?”

Me [an immigrant kid raised by a single mom]: “I just stayed home.”

I despised people asking me about summer because my schoolmates usually traveled to cool places like Disney World or Universal Studio, but I stayed home with my sister studying or walking around the neighborhood.

So I avoided them by browsing through the binders – color coordinating each subject/class and marking off the checkboxes with a pen. “Eunice! Where are you?” Every time mom called me, my mission to avoid school colleagues failed. However, as I got older – especially in college – I found school supply shopping pleasant. One, we had more options to shop for – not just binders but décor stuff, too. Two, we were all on the same boat: trying to settle in. It did not matter what you did over the summer or what binders you got. You did your own thing with your family. In a way, back-to-school in college is a shared experience for most American families.

Today, I am no longer a student, and I’m enjoying the slow pace of summer life – right before school starts. Although I don’t have to worry about the stress of preparing for a new school year, I work at a university and I see students touring the campus with their parents. Soon, the school will reopen its doors with big carts, “Welcome Back” balloon signs, extracurricular poster boards, and parents proudly taking pictures of their child in their new home. I first witnessed this culture back when I went to Boston to help my sister move in. Four years later, I moved to college and my mom was a pro at it. Ten years have gone by, Fall is around the corner and Back-to-School season is here. Just when I’m out of breath from the last bit of summer heat, I think of the times when my family and I “cooled” down at Barnes and Noble. When I look at Halloween decorations at Homegoods I remember the trips we made to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy shower caddies for college. When I’m at Target, I remember browsing through the aisles to find the sturdy folders. There is nothing more memorable and nostalgic than the experiences we had as students getting ready for school. For me, that defines autumn.