Summer seems to be passing. I’ll spend most of next week at school on a video project for the district, and the following week brings the before-Labor-Day meetings and workshops. Two weeks from Tuesday a new school year begins. As is true of most years, I’m more-or-less ready for the change. While I enjoy summer’s down-time, I’m restless by the second week of August. Today it feels as if the year ahead is poised like a race-horse in the starting gate, barely contained energy awaiting the bell so it can leap into activity. It doesn’t really care what the jockey feels; he’s only (the horse thinks) along for the ride.
This will be a transition year in several ways. The most obvious will be Mary starting her freshman year at CCHS. Four years from now she will (most likely) be out of the house, off to college, and beginning her life independent from Mom & Dad. It’s exciting to watch her, but also a little bittersweet, Mary being our youngest. The nest isn’t empty yet, but I can feel it coming.
Mary’s graduation from high school will more than likely mark the end or near-end of my teaching career, at least public-high-school part. From the time I started teaching until a couple of years ago, I had always thought of myself as being in the classroom well into my mid-60s or beyond. I love being a class with a couple dozen teenagers, and I know I’ll miss it very much when I do leave. However, the combination of a problematic school environment with ongoing health issues (thank you, again, President Bush) make an earlier transition more likely. Of course, one can’t tell what lies ahead: things can change in ways that would keep me in the classroom, or push me out even earlier. Insofar as anyone can make plans, though (“life happens while we make plans”), the end appears in sight.
Anne will be starting back to school sometime this year, too. The circumstances that brought this about have been unpleasant, but I’m excited in anticipating the new directions that will open up to her over the next year. She’s always deserved better, and I see those days coming.
On a more mundane level, I should be able to realize some changes in at least two project I’ve been nurturing for a couple of years. The school yearbook program will, I hope, take on a completely different look, drawing more participation and enthusiasm from the students. Also, despite some unfortunate setbacks over the past six months, I think our TV production project will finally get off the ground (although it may be more like the Wright Brother’s first flight that a launch of the space mission).
Financially, the past two months have not gone well; but that, too, should eventually yield some benefits. I’m optimistic that the next six months will make the last three, if not worthwhile, at least acceptable. Assuming, of course, that our political & economic leaders don’t bring about a complete economic & social meltdown over the next year.
So, I think I’m ready for summer to pass. In more ways than I care to write about, what is in the past should remain just that: in the past. It is by looking forward that we progress, and it is by progressing that we grow. And that, I think, is what life is ultimately all about.
aim at New England. We’ve begun to get the leading edge rain, but the Saturday still remains fairly quiet. We’ve laid in several day’s worth of supplies, so there’s little to do but wait out the storm.
