A Fresh Start
By Sean McVeigh
Happy New Year!
Yep, you read that right. Sure, January 1 gets all the credit for flipping the calendar, but who are we really kidding? The real new year begins with the end of summer and the start of the school year.
I haven’t been in the classroom for quite a while, and I don’t have kids who I can’t wait to go back to school in school either, but Labor Day weekend still feels more like the turning of a page or the end of a chapter than December 31 ever has.
My wife, who works at a school, may not share my fondness for this start of the year, but I imagine that feeling of renewal must be even stronger for her and all those who truly begin something new each September.
A big part of that fresh-start, clean slate feeling comes from the weather. When we go from December into January not much is left to the imagination — it’s cold, and then colder. But the difference between August 1 and September 30? That can be striking. And a lot of that is because of where we live.
My sister-in-law is a teacher in Arizona. Just as our winters are reliably frigid, their summers are reliably blistering — too hot, sometimes, for kids to even be outside. As a result, their schools run year-round, with several short breaks throughout the year. They do not have a true summer break. This year, her first day back to work was July 7, with the kids following a week later. While I’m sure she had a feeling of starting anew — it was the beginning of a new school year after all — I don’t know if it can match the perfect storm of timing we get here in the Northeast. A major change coinciding with a seasonal change only matters in places where the seasons actually change. (And the next time your child complains that summer ends too soon, just threaten to move to Arizona!)
We’re lucky that most schools around here don’t start until after Labor Day. I say “most” because more and more I have been hearing of kids starting school earlier and earlier. The idea of sitting in a classroom in August makes me nauseous — it just sounds cruel. Thinking — the real kind of thinking that is a prerequisite to learning — requires a certain temperature, and August is not famous for its contemplative climate. I find it has more of an airheaded atmosphere.
And while we’re on the topic of cruel, schools end way too late. My wife — who works at a K–5 school — finished last year on June 29. That’s practically mid-summer! I know I’m getting old because I can’t help but respond to that with a classic “Back in my day …” There’s just no way we got out that late when I was a kid … or at least that’s how I remember it. But I digress.
Like January 1, the start of the school year feels like a new beginning. “This is the year!” “The world is my oyster!” But just as resolutions start to fade by mid-January, a few weeks into September, the grind usually settles in, and that feeling of hope dissipates.
For now, however, as we go into Labor Day weekend, the hope is still strong. And, who knows, maybe this year will be different. Maybe this will be the one that changes everything. And if not, well, don’t sweat it — there’s another fresh start right around the corner in January — just with a puffer jacket on.
