Happy New Year!
I've always loved the beginning of the school year--even before I was old enough to go to school. For me, that magical Tuesday after Labour Day was an eagerly anticipated Event, not a dreaded return to enslavement and drudgery. One of my first memories is the sense of betrayal I felt waking up on my fourth birthday to be met with the information that I still had to wait 8 whole months before I too could finally head off with my older brothers to school.
Maybe that's why I've never really understood why the new year is marked by some arbitrarily chosen date in the middle of winter. Really, what makes January 1 all that different from December 31 other than the fact that you have to put up a whole new calendar instead of just turn the page? If not for the hangover and the holiday, would anyone really notice the change?
I think the new year really starts in September. Unlike New Year's Day, the first day of school is a legitimate marker of a new phase of the year. In September, something new and different happens that marks a clear distinction between the "Then" and the "Now." "Then" was swimsuits and barbeques; "Now" is school clothes and bedtimes. What could be a more obvious indication of the change in circumstances than that, I ask you?
When you think about it, September, not January, is a time of new beginnings. September is a clean slate; the time when you leave the past behind you and embark on a new phase in your life. It's all about that feeling of promise and posssibility that courses through your veins and gives you butterflies in your stomach when you think about your new class, your new school clothes, fresh notebooks, sharpened pencils, and crayons that have yet to be reduced to naked little fragments smooshed haphazardly into a crushed cardboard box. January is just dirty snow and back to the regular grind.
There are few things more evocative of a fresh start than a backpack filled with empty notebooks and markers that still have all their lids. As a kid, I liked to get out my pencil case and just look at the wonders it held, imagining the exciting year ahead. Actually, I still like to do that; a visit to Staples is better than a trip to the candy store for me. All those gel pens and notebooks and overhead markers to choose from! It makes me positively giddy to contemplate. In fact, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to head out and get ready for a whole new year; I have really high hopes for it.
Comments
Of course, if you live in Australia, January is not only the New Year, but the beginning of a new school year also!!!
Or, if you live in Mississippi, we start school August 9th and it doesn't snow in January!
Hmmm...Maybe I should move to Australia.
If school starts in January in Australia, when does summer vacation start?
Summer vacation in Australia starts in summer - December!
However, our holidays are much more spread out than yours seem to be - our kids only get 6 weeks for the Christmas (yes they're still called that) holidays, but they also get 10 days at Easter, 2 weeks in winter (June) and 2 weeks in spring (September.
Hi there,
In Indonesia school starts in July. And unlike you guys there who are lucky to have what you call SEASONS, we only have hot, hotter, hottest, dry and rainâ¦
But you are right, the smell of new notebooks, thick textbooks, the various schoolbags from the normal backpackers to the ones shaped like Spongebob, Patrick or even Spiderman, can really get you into frenzy. I think Iâm even more excited about it then my son is. Not to mention the choices of colours for the thermos and lunchboxes.
However, it kind of puts me off when my son comes back from school with broken pencils and grease drops on his book jackets. At first I went ahead and got new ones or changed the jackets; but after having to do the ritual for the hundredth time in just a week of school, I finally just gave up and wrapped the books in plastic covers.
Warm regards from Jakarta, Indonesia.
Hey there! A warm hallo from South Africa!
We start school in January. I must tell you, The rush of getting everything in time is great! We still have school uniforms, so we start shopping in November-(schools are mostly closed in the first week of December)But it makes me feel like a kid again!
Greetings
Christinnè
Ok these countries are off hand! December for summer! In Michigan it is winter wonderland time!! I wish we had school off for 6 weeks for children but not for parents! U need ur time! When fo they finish school if they start in December or January??
Curious Questions for out of the US
I am amazed to find that I am not the only one experiencing exactly the same thing as probably tens of thousands of moms and children out there. I am challenged w/a 6 year old and a 16 year old - one soon to be in grade one and one in highschool, but both are equally excited and nervous to start the new school year. Butterflies soar the nite before school. The smell of new lingers in the kitchen as all is carefully packed into the new backpacks - fresh everything, new everything. Oh and the first day of school outfit - who could forget that - also carefully laid out the night before - the feeling of knowing you looking perfect - verything matches, no holes, no stains. A mother's pride! If only for a day, so be it. Beautifully captured forever - a kodak moment. Click is heard - oh and so is "Oh no, mom not another picture".
Ahhh, the sights and sounds of the New Year - September. What a glorious month!
kagak ngarti gue mesti coment apa ya?
