My entire life has been shaped by the rhythm of the school year. I was born while my parents were still in school, and as I grew up my siblings and I matched our home school schedules to my dad’s calendar as he collected degrees and then began working as a professor. Then I went to college and then grad school and then more grad school, and finally I ended up working at a college. The circadian rhythm of my year never missed a beat.
The other rhythms of my life — sleeping and waking, energy and resting, socializing and curling up with a book, talking and staying silent — these have all been uprooted in the last few years. The rhythm of the year, though, marches on. September is the beginning, June the ending, and July and August the yearly interregnum. And every year it seems like I have less and less of a clean slate in September, more projects carrying over, more tasks left to catch up on, and yet the feeling that this is the beginning remains.
Happy beginnings to you all, and may this year be whatever you need it to be.