“[T]hat old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air … Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year’s mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.”
~ Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
Yes, I know it’s just September.
It’s Labor Day, and yes, I am working.
But it’s also a day that makes me so happy.
For the vast majority of my life (barring those few years where I was *just* working and not in school…), the academic year really marks the new year for me.
Something about the anticipation of what is to come… who will my students be? how will they challenge me? what will I learn from them? what new insights will I glean from teaching the same material to a different group?
And, more importantly, how will I grow, and change, and learn, this year? What will be different NEXT Labor Day, compared to this one?
That step into the unknown, the deep breath and then having the courage to move forward into the unknown.
Isn’t that the point of a new year, a turning point?
Mine just happens to come in September, not January.
So, happy new year. There won’t be midnight fireworks (I’m usually asleep anyway….). There (probably) won’t be champagne (although what a good idea for the first faculty meeting!). But there will be energy and excitement and nerves.
I can’t wait.