Remember how you felt in September when you were child getting ready for school?  The newness, the excitement.  Were you eager to see your friends again?  Did the excitement wear off by the end of September as you look forward to June again?

Recall buying new clothes, new shoes, pencils, erasers, rulers, copybooks with blank pages waiting to be filled.

I was always full of resolution.  “This year will be my best.  I’m going to study hard and get all A’s.”  Learning was and is exciting to me.  A new year waiting to unfold before me with all of its unknown wonders was enticing. That feeling wore off quickly too.

How did you feel about your new teacher?  Were you frightened or happy, relieved or disappointed?  A new teacher meant you could be a new person without the stigmas from previous years.  You could be a new you.

Where did you sit?  First seat or last? Next to someone you liked?  Did you get in the same class as your best friend?

Everything is so clean, so new, so fresh and untouched at the beginning of the school year.  Books have that “new smell”, lunch boxes are clean, backpacks in good condition.  If you wore a uniform, it wasn’t too short year and your socks stayed up at the beginning of the year.

What field trips will we take this year?  Maybe I’ll get first honors, have perfect attendance, be smarter than Francis Romagano.  ANything seems possible on that first day.

Too soon, the pencils are worn down, books are used, backpacks frayed, friendships formed, reputations made.  The year is under way.  Quickly it is Fall with Harvest parties, pumpkin drawings, Thanksgiving with Pilgrim plays and turkey feasts, followed by the Holidays.  Suddenly the year is nearly half over!

But in September- the slate is clean.  Each year at this time I feel sad and a little lonely for my childhood memories; the friends of my youth.  This is a season for reflection.  I miss the pencils and the orange and black construction paper and the promise of something new.  But I do enjoy reliving this time of year with my children as we anticipate (or dread) the start of a new school year.  (Angela DiCicco, 1991)