Hello, Fall!
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Just me on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 9:43 PM
In the movie You’ve Got Mail, the two main characters (who have met online) are discussing by email how much they love the season of autumn. And Tom Hanks’s character writes to Meg Ryan’s, “I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
I have always thought this a charming idea. This time of year, give me a bouquet of sharp pencils and a fresh notebook, its pages perfectly clean, and I’ll be happy as a clam.
September - far more than January - feels like the beginning of the new year to me, and has for as long as I can remember. For schoolchildren, and college students as well, it brings the chance to start over in new circumstances. Even old routines seem fresh when your books and folders are clean, as yet undisturbed by the hours of study to come.
Fall is strange for me now that I’m not a student anymore. Thirteen years of school and five years of college means I’ve spent the vast majority of my life in classrooms. This is the fifth autumn since my college graduation and I’m still not used to the fact that as students are flocking back to those classrooms, I’m not among them.
Life as a mother of small children is sweet and satisfying, but it is not always exciting. In September our days follow the same pattern they did in August. Naps, cups of milk, board-book readings, trips to the potty: these will be the stuff of our lives for the foreseeable future.
But inside, I feel differently as the new school year comes around. Internally, I’m adjusting, resolving, planning, changing. September has always been a time for me to examine my life, to begin again in new resolutions to make it better.
I don’t need fresh notebooks or new classrooms to keep me focused. Even something as small as the crunch of a fallen leaf under my foot will strengthen the reality of this new year for me.
Welcome, fall!
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