LY #15: The last first day of classes

Today has been my last first day of classes.  Well, actually tomorrow is my last first day, if we count actually meeting a class face to face.

Returning each fall is exciting and scary.  I spend so much of my summers working by myself that jumping back into the large group setting of a classroom inside a large institution is always a bit of a shock, like leaping into a lake fed by a glacier.  Bracing!

My husband used to say that the first couple of years he was retired he only missed school in the fall. I imagine I'll share that fate.  So we plan to travel in the fall.

Birdy Fall 2012

In the old days, when I spent some of my summers in school, first as a student and then as a teaching assistant, I wasn't as challenged by my return to the classroom because I hadn't been so long away from it.  But whether or not I've spent my summers free or as a wage slave,  I've always looked forward to getting back to the regular school year. 

Not that I haven't been anxious!  It used to  take me time to get over the culture shock of new people and a new "leader" each year. Even so, once I had the situation sussed each year I enjoyed most of my classroom. I enjoyed learning and "being myself" in a way I couldn't at home.  Now that I'm a teacher, it's topsy turvy and I'm more "myself" at home than I am at school! 

Nw Wall St. Fall 2012

I also enjoy the first day because it's associated both with my birthday and the sad exaltation of autumn, my favorite time of year.  The time of the red trees.