Those days or weeks before heading back to school are filled with preparation.

It’s a busy time spent running around town trying on school uniforms, covering school books, purchasing new school shoes and getting that back-to-school haircut.

Parents have spent weeks trying to keep children amused during multiple heatwaves, to the point their return to school might almost be a relief, and children have no doubt been taking advantage of the time off.

Summer is a time full of wonder and possibility, unless it’s full of multiple days above 40 degrees, and then it’s borderline a candidate to ruin holidays.

In Australia, one year ends and another begins in the summer holidays and you’re left feeling like something exciting is happening toward the end of it.

But as much you never want holidays to end, there’s a certain excitement that comes with going back to school.

Starting a new year is exciting and being reunited with friends is all the reason you need to get ready in a hurry on day one.

That is, until the nerves kick in.

Many students this week will be starting school for the first time, whether it be in kindergarten or year 7. 

Perhaps it’s the end of the scholastic journey for those students going into years 10 or 12.

And many teenagers will navigate the start of another educational chapter in their lives – university.

Whatever year students are entering or leaving, it’s such a defining moment in a child or young adult’s life.

At the time, it’s hard not to get caught up in the homework and the routine and the pressure of picking subjects.

But years later, you realise how important those school years were.

To all Riverina students, embrace the challenges you face and the knowledge you obtain.

School years are when we do most of our growing, physically and emotionally.

It would be a shame to waste that time wishing you were somewhere else.