Happy New Year

To me New Year does not fall on January 1st. Yeah, I know I am weird and all the teachers here will hate me, and no I have not completely lost my mind! The beginning of a school year always signified a New Year! There was so much to be excited about, new hand-me-down clothes, new crayons, new pencils, new paper, new teachers, and new classrooms that smelt of varnish and floor wax. The best part was seeing friends you had not seen all summer because they lived beyond your mothers “I can’t see or yell for you radius!”
After my kids were born it seemed like the new school year marked the passage of time, every first day of school made me feel so sad! Time was passing much too quickly! Now my son is a senior in high school and my daughter a senior in college. Where did all that time go? Next year my son will be a freshman in college and my daughter will be a graduate student in education. Even I myself kept up the going to school thing finishing an undergrad and then a graduate degree. I won’t lie to you going back to school with two kids, a husband, a full time job and a mortgage was not the least bit easy, but I HAD A FREAKIN BLAST!! Going to grad school teaches you that you can learn more than you thought your brain can handle!!! Plus your classmates will keep you going when you think you cannot take another step!!
I also celebrated the first day of school as New Years Day because, new years in New England usually sucks!! First off it is usually colder than you can imagine, and it more than likely will snow! You take down all your beautiful holiday ornaments so there is nothing entertaining to look at. If you are like me you spend the night in a crowded emergency room suturing idiots who have imbibed just a little too much! Yeah, there are some high points to New Years Eve in Worcester and Boston. You can go downtown and see the cultural performances, the ice sculptures, skate on the common, and if you go into Boston the BSO usually puts on a magnificent show that is followed up by a magnificent firework display. Even Worcester does have a have way decent job on the fireworks! BUT, if you do go into Boston you have to race to get on the commuter rail with the great unwashed masses and battle your way home. I do mean battle because don’t forget there is a lot of celebrating going on out there! After my kids were born I gave up on New Year parties and usually just worked, the money was better than the risks!
So you see September is a good time to celebrate New Year, (even if you are a teacher or a French teacher). I hope you all are enjoying your first week(s) back at school. I wish I were with you! Maybe that Phd is not so elusive after all!