This is a strange week for me.  It is the week that my unemployment checks end and it is the week that school starts for many.  I have been a part of the beginning of school for the last 24 years … and of course all 20 years of my own education.  So 44 years of my 58.  

Not this year.

Weird.

 

This year I do not work for an educational entity and I have no child beginning school.

 

There was a time that my life was measured around how many more days until summer and then how many more days until summer is over.

 

Growing up at the NJ shore, summer was absolutely the best.  Days were filled with zinc oxide on my nose (I am naturally a redhead), bare feet, sand, salt water, bike riding, reading, summer theatre performances, sailing boating, swim lessons, and soooo much more.  I loved summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are so many fond memories of growing up at the beach.  I lived on a street that had about 30 kids in a small block.  A variety of ages, but most were within 5 years of my age.  I was the only “Protestant” on the street, and consequently the only “single sibling” living there. (I do have a brother, but he is 9 years my senior and usually worked with our dad during the summer in North Jersey.) You have no idea how many games of baseball, pickup touch football and dodge ball were played in the street.  The girls played Barbies on rainy days until we outgrew them – and when I say Barbies, I mean an entire village of everyones houses, dolls and shoes.  We went back and forth to the beach endlessly, ate at each others houses and chased the ice cream truck.  We also ran for cover when the mosquito truck came by – we even knew then that malathion had to be bad for you!

Each year, for the Fourth of July, we organized our own parade.  There were that many of us!  We would spend days with crepe paper decorating the wheels of our bikes and making “floats” on wagons.  We would decorate our pets to be walked in the parade and we even would convince our parents to purchase candy to throw to the spectators.  We were always sure to have horns on our bikes and percussion instruments to “play”.  Our parade route was around the block.  The people on our block – our families -loved it.  The people on the next block – well who knows, but we “marched” on by and threw candy at whomever showed up.  It was a fabulous time.  We loved our annual parade.

 

Eventually, we all grew up and had to have summer jobs.  The parade was lost, and chasing the ice cream truck was not as much fun.  But the beach…. oh the beach… we still all met to swim, skim board  and sit in the sand.  And we didn’t just have a week of that opportunity – we had almost 90 days of that opportunity!

 

At this time of year, we began to become aware of the fact that Labor Day was looming around the corner.

 

 On the East Coast, Labor Day is the defining moment. It is the end of the line.  It is the end of summer and school starts. And beach days, parades and popsicles end for the most part.  But, what begins is a new school year. An opportunity to learn, to progress, to complete and move on.  A chance to make a new beginning, a new friend, learn a new idea. A time to develop into more of yourself.  A place where you have never been and never will be again. Time for change, growth and development.

 

We symbolize that opportunity with new backpacks, new pens/pencils, new notebooks.  We arrange this opportunity with new schedules, new commitments, new activities. We capitalize on this opportunity by becoming more serious, more devoted and more involved.  It is a fresh sheet of paper. A chance to impact the future from within the confines of ourselves.

 

Everyone outgrows their “involvement” in the first day of school at some point in their lives.  Some of us are in it for longer than others, like a teacher, but eventually, even they outgrow this phenomenon.  However – we should never outgrow what new beginnings mean for us.  We should always be looking for an opportunity to change, grow, become more of who we are.  We need that fresh perspective. We need new pencils even if we don’t get a new backpack (or bookbag as I called it all those years ago).

 

I think that August/September is a much more logical time in our lives to commit to resolutions than January.  

 

It is a time that impacts most of us in some way or another, even if it is to just adjust our commute time to allow for school zones.  And if we look just a bit closer, we can see that many things in our lives revolve around this calendar rather than the calendar that begins in January.  School really becomes the focus of our daily revolution, even if we don’t personally attend.

 

What will you resolve to do this school year?  

 

Will you get new notebook paper or just use an old piece from last year with last years notes on it, making no effort to learn something new?  Will you grind that pencil nub into the ground in defiance of buying new pencils or will you admit to needing to write some new direction for your life? Will you add a new person to your circle of friends, or stay an elitist in the group you have already been apart of ?

 

Some of us will even need to find a new school.  That’s ok.  Transition is a part of growing up.   

 

Get new paper and pencils! Add a new friend! Move on to a new environment! Change can be good!

There is one thing I refuse to do and that is to buy three boxes of tissues for my classroom…. because there is no room for crying in this “back to school” mode.  Crying is for people who choose not be involved in the Fourth of July parade, or who choose to not run into the street and pick up the candy. For people who won’t attempt new pencils and new friends. Or who choose to not take up the challenge of a new adventure.  

 

So friends – grab a hold of a new year and a new adventure – that way you will have a story to tell.  That way you will enrich yours and others lives. That way you will be living in the now. and not wishing for the past or the future. That way you will be making a difference – if not for someone else, than for yourself.  
Bring it on 2015-16 school year! And let’ make up our minds to be up to the task of learning “new”.

Leave me a comment about what what new pencils and notebooks are in your life this year!  Remember to subscribe to receive this blog in your email everyday and share to your social media. Thanks!!