Summer school(ed)

This week I’ll begin my 27th year teaching. If you factor in my own years as a student, I’ve spent 45+ years of my life greeting September by returning to school. That’s a long time.

Despite all those decades of experience, a new school year always comes with a combination of excitement and dread. Each year promises opportunities, previously unimagined moments and frustrations – and it always delivers.

As I look forward to this new beginning, it seems a good time to reflect upon some of the things I’ve learned during Summer, 2021. Even though it’s been many years since I’ve actually been in summer school, (as a teacher, to be clear) I am, after all, a lifetime learner.

Aren’t you?

• My sons will eat zucchini if I grate it and leave it in the fridge. 
• When you purchase a new appliance or other big ticket item, regardless of whether you are immediately going to use it, remove it from the box and confirm that it’s not damaged.
• Finding a balance between having a good time and having too much isn’t always easy.
• Figuring out what you want in life and who you are isn’t necessarily a finite process.
• There are some who will mistake vulnerability for weakness.
• Our country is filled with people who’d rather embrace ignorance than science and who choose to demonstrate their lack of intelligence in a myriad of ways.
• Despite recently reading love described as a “transitory chemical feeling,” I still believe it might be more than that. Sometimes.
• The Morning Show and Ted Lasso are great, albeit very different, escapes.
• My dog is the easiest male in my life to make happy.
• That it’s possible to not always equate sex with commitment.  
• It really does take months to get major appliances during a pandemic.
• Harry Nilsson died far too young, but he sure left behind some great music.
• If you really want your kids to leave home get rid of the WiFi booster – and cancel those premium cable channels while you’re at it.
• And finally, it’s ok to ask for/accept help.*

Wishing you and yours a great new school year. Let’s do this!

*This lesson came to me at the end of last school year courtesy of a sixth grade student. During the summer I actually began applying it in my life and it’s becoming easier to reach out when I need a hand and not immediately decline assistance. Easier, but still not necessarily easy.