There’s something new in the air. School has started back up again, and there’s been all kinds of activity and energy going on. Aisles in stores are packed with school supplies and lists for classes. TV commercials highlight all things back to school. Kids and parents are out buying new clothes, shoes and backpacks. Parents race down the street, hoping to get their kids to school on time, or pack up their college kids and head out. I can’t help but feel the excitement. It’s a new year. Even though it’s still summer, it’s a brand new year.

I remember loving that feeling of starting a new year of school. I was going into a whole new grade. This meant I had grown up from just a few months before. I wondered who I would sit next to in class. What would my teachers be like. Would I make new friends. Who would I have a crush on. Even though I would probably be seeing a lot of the same kids I saw last year, somehow every year was completely new. In college, everything was even more intensified. I could hardly sleep the night before the first day of school. It was mix of fear and excitement. The possibility of something new, of somehow being something new.

It was nice having school years divided up by a long summer break. Each year was distinct, with a clear beginning and end, along with a knowledge and a comfort of going on to the next year. There are things we learn in each level of school—knowledge that prepares us for the next level of learning. Once we get out of school, it’s not quite so easy to distinguish where we’re at. What we choose to do in our lives involves lots of stages and changes, but they aren’t so clearly defined or mapped out for us. Sometimes it takes years to be able to look back and see what the chapters in our lives have been, when they happened, and how long they were.

I must have been picking up on all of this going on around me over that last few weeks, because I see that I am right smack in the middle of a learning mode myself right now. Everywhere I turn are books I want to read, webinars, video series to follow, blogs to catch up on, more books.* There seems to be amazing information coming into my radar from all around me. It’s almost overwhelming. I’m not sure how I’ll keep up or get it all ingested and absorbed. But what I do know is that something new is coming in. I don’t know what it’s all about, what I’m going to learn or where it will lead me, but I’m open. And I’m excited. And I don’t even have to take the bus.

In anticipation,

Kerry

*My partial reading list:
“Louder Than Words”, by Todd Henry
“Rising Strong”, by Brené Brown
“The Psyche of an Artist”, by Dr. Eric Maisel
“the life-changing magic of tidying up”, by Marie Kondo

Back to school