As for me, I stayed up late last night drinking wine and beer on the back porch with a few very close friends. I have shared 11 first days of school with one of them, as we live around the corner from one another and both attended Temple University. With another one, I had only experienced one first day of school, because we did not become friends until our junior year of college. When I woke up this morning, it was not extremely early. I did not take a bus. I did not groan at my mom as she cried, or later that day read the note that she snuck into my lunchbox. I did not pack my backpack. I did not make sure to look for my lunch money. I didn't throw copious amounts of gel in my hair (Confession, still haven't showered yet today). I didn't pick out an outfit last night, didn't wait in long lines at the overprices bookstore. I didn't hug old friends I hadn't seen all summer. I didn't run around like a chicken with my head cut off through crowded hallways or bump into thousands of people as I maneuvered with my map or syllabus around campus. I didn't sit in my first classes, wondering who in that room would be a friend, an acquaintance, a hook-up, a gym buddy, a crush, or a stranger by the end of the year or semester. I didn't listen to some disgustingly nostalgic playlist that I always put on during times of transition (though...I am now, don't judge) on my iPod (or Walkman) on the way to school.
Instead, I slept until 9:00, made myself breakfast, watched the news, and went on Facebook to see all these notifications about the first day of school.
Obviously, I'm a bit sad. I'm happy about the no homework thing. Hallelujah. Also happy about the fact that I'm not spending ridiculous amounts of money on books I may or may not open. But make no mistake, I have accepted that school is over (until I go to grad school for...something. And until I become a teacher later on down the road), and I am on to the next piece of my life. Many of us are. One status read as follows:
Everyone is posting their pictures of their new ID badges for their new careers and posting about their first day. Just a shout out...I'm so proud of all of you for making your dreams come true!
I could quote all the cheesiest movies right now in the form of Ferris Bueller's send-off, but instead I'm just going to talk about how awesome school was. Maybe I just got lucky or fortunate to have a great school, great after-school programs and extracurricular activities, great teachers and professors. Not everyone has that. But honestly, education is absolutely one of the best aspects to life. It is the first major aspect of our lives. Education takes up the first quarter of one's life. Does that sound right? I was never good at math. Got a 5 out of 40 on an Algebra II test. Four points were for my name. One in every four of the days are spent on learning. We learn not only about foreign languages, grammar, histories of every corner of the world, training in our career fields, and scientific equations, but about ourselves and about people around us. Here are some of the best lessons I learned over the course of the past 20 years of education (excluding ages 1-3).
1. You have to balance breadth and depth of your interests. It's good to know a lot about a few subjects, but to dabble a bit in the rest of them so you have basic knowledge.
2. No risk, no reward. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. You have to take a chance, on a new class, on a new friendship, on a new lover, on a new neighborhood.
3. The ability to collaborate with others others is one of the most successful, unique and beautiful aspects of human nature.
4. Always keep the door open. Literally and figuratively. You never know who may walk in.
I think that we both dread and get so amped for the first day of school because it is a way to start fresh. That can be fresh coming off a bad year, or fresh coming off a good year and continuing in the same way. The first day of school is something we can all share. Education and these first days have taught me that there is so much to learn about in the world. Maybe that's where I get the nerdy excitement. There is a great deal of suffering in this world, as well as a great deal of (oftentimes rightly distributed) pessimism. I think, however, that many don't realize how good we have it, both as Americans students and as human beings. The earth is huge, time is huge. It's a all a big textbook waiting to be explored. One of the expensive glossy ones though. You can find it brand new or in the used section. Either way, it's a good book. Not like the crappy Calculus books.
Happy First Day of School.
