Why can't I be one of those girls with a lovely pencil case?

There is a type of girl (or should I now say 'woman') out there who is always so 'together' and a symbol of her togetherness would be her pencil case. See she is the girl at school who ALWAYS had the beautiful ultra-organised pencil case. A lovely shiny tin with an interesting pattern, sharp pencils in a range of shades and hardness's, a lovely fresh looking rubber, a cool pencil sharpener with a bit to catch the shaving - blah blah blah. She would even find room for extra little cool 'bits' - like a nice lip balm and something scented. Perhaps there would be a little love note folded up in the bottom corner.

I wanted to be this girl. I wanted to be her SO much - but it seems to be against my genetic make-up.

Every term I would start with the best of intentions - with my new shiny pencil case. However (and I sure it won't surprise you to hear this) within weeks (or in a bad year, days...) my pencil case would have been transformed. It would be dented. There would be scratches all over it. I think one even lost it's lid completely. People would have drawn on it with (banned) Tipex and gouged out the names of bands and boys and CND symbols. The pencils would be missing and/or blunt. The rubber would be filthy and have 'bits' hanging of it. The pencil sharpener would be lost (thus all the blunt pencils) but annoyingly the bottom of the pencil tin would be full of pencil shavings. Oh and there would certainly be no love note.

Every now and again and I would clear it out and make myself promise that from NOW ON I would be a girl with a very nice pencil case.

But I never was.

I don't have a pencil case anymore but I think this phenomenon has been replaced by handbags and diets. Whilst others parade around with bags filled with miniature Tupperware boxes, purposeful pouches and wallets - mine is a sea of loose change, random plastic cards (some for stores which no longer exist), damp things and a million crushed mini-Cheddars/rice-cakes/fruit bars/whatever the kids have been eating which have set like some kind of crumble topping in the bottom of the bag. I even found a pint of milk in there the other day (thankfully still in the bottle but, alas, rather warm).

When it comes to diets, I (like most other women it appears) always seem to think that 'from tomorrow' I will be able to live on a diet of only organic mung beans and water and, within weeks, be transformed into a svelte icon of Hollywood proportions. This lasts until I feel stressed and send my OH over to the corner shop for a 4 pack of Strongbow and some chips from the Chinese......

So there we are. I am me and I can't see me changing so I've just had to learn to embrace the chaos the crumbs and the curves. You can't fight nature....

Tweet