Hello friends,
When I was a kid (relax, this isn’t going to be a back-in-my-day rant), school started after Labor Day and it ended before Memorial Day. Then, by the time I was in high school, we started the week before Labor Day and ended the week after Memorial Day. Of course, now some districts or countries have year-round school and so, nothing is standard. I have taught year-round for 30 years and there are always students. We can grow and evolve and that is fine (See…rant free).
Still, this time of year gets me thinking about back-to-school stuff. I just traveled to spend a week at my college for our workshop week. Some schools call it in-service. Others call it welcome week. Whatever it is called, it means one thing, a new “year” of school is about to begin. Students are beginning a new adventure be that starting Kindergarten, or leaving a private middle school for a public high school, or as happens to many of the characters in my books, they head off to college for the first time.
This is equal parts exciting and nervous-making. I went to college two weeks early. I was so nervous that I couldn’t hold down any food for a week. It was unpleasant as you can imagine. I had to go early because I was playing football, or as my UK friends say, American Football, because you know, words. Regardless of what we called it, we had to go early to practice and learn plays and bond.
I realized pretty early on I was not going to bond with those guys. Their favorite part of the campus tour was the gym, not the library. They didn’t want to head back to their rooms each night and read. I was rereading Wuthering Heights for maybe the third time. I had a tiny pocket version of it that I carried with me at all times. I don’t remember the cover of that edition, but I remember it fit in my back pocket and the ends of the pages were red. I knew what was going to happen so stopping and staring wasn’t a problem. I would read during breaks between practices or meals. It made me super popular as you can imagine.
Unsurprisingly, I only made one friend on the football team and I didn’t play in subsequent years. It was for the best. I suffered multiple brain injuries as a kid and once when I was at those early practices anyway, so really, I shouldn’t have been playing American Football in the first place. Yeah. I was a clumsy kid but managed to be a decent athlete. I don’t understand it either.
Regardless of all of that, I do have fond memories of heading off to school. I was thrilled to go to college. Each year when I was in K-12, I was excited to start that year. I wanted to learn something new. I didn’t worry about meeting anyone new because, and this is true, 60 of the 69 people I graduated with were in my school when I started Kindergarten. Yeah. Small town. Going off to college was super new. It was so exciting and frightening, but, spoiler alert, the excitement beat out the nerves.
I’ve never really lost that feeling of excitement, I feel it each time a new semester begins. Because I teach year-round, I have the chance to get that feeling of joy that I am starting something brand new every few months. Even if I am teaching the same classes I will have new students who are trying something for the first time. When I used to teach on-ground, I couldn’t sleep the night before a new semester began. I would show up at school as soon as I could drink gallons of free coffee and then unleash all that on my unsuspecting students. I will never forget shouting “YEAH MONDAY!” to a group of students on the first day of a four-hour Monday night class that met from 6 to 10 PM. I was, and am, a lot to deal with. Sorry.
So, friends, while my trip to Michigan was long and tiring, I am hopeful and excited and, of course, nervous. On Monday, my new adventure begins as I have taken on a leadership role at my University. It will mean a lighter teaching load, but I will still teach this semester and I will likely always teach in the summer because, someone has to, summer students are generally amazing as they choose to take classes in the summer, so they are nerds like me, and because, I really do love doing that job. It never gets old.
What are your favorite back-to-school memories? Did you love it? Hate it? Have any traditions? Let me know.
Notes from my Bookshelf
Lois Lowry has never written a bad book. This is a fact. Her latest book Tree. Table. Book. is a gut punch in all the best ways. Books are supposed to do this. She is a queen.
In other middle-reader news, I read The Girl from the Sea, a graphic novel by Molly Knox Ostertag and it was glorious. A really nice reimagining of The Little Mermaid. I think everyone would love it.
At the other end of the spectrum, I started Chuck Dixon’s Levon Cade series. They are all bombast and action. They are not for everyone, but they know what they are. Dixon did my all-time favorite run on the Robin comic book back in the 90s so I give him a pass on a lot of things.
Notes from my keyboard
I managed to write 60,000 words in 60 days this summer. June 13th 0 words in book 4 of The Austen Chronicles. August 12th 60,400 words. I haven’t been able to keep up that breakneck pace, but I do hope to finish it before the year ends. It isn’t due to the editor until April. That just gives me more time to start book 5 and work on Comics Lit Vol 2 and a few other things I have cooking. It is all very exciting!
If you have not picked up your digital advance reader copy of That Other Dashwood Girl or Comics Lit Vol 1. You can get them both here. If you click the links of the books just above, you can preorder them at your favorite bookstore.
Thanks again for being a subscriber,
ARF
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