New Year

While January 1st technically ushers in our new year, I have always seen September as the true start of a fresh slate. I have been out of school for (too) many years, but the arrival of school buses, fall breezes and the turning of leaves seems to be the start of something. January just seems like (yet another) month of winter.

September means change. New classrooms in new grades, moving up and on, and growing, oh, just growing until no one really seems like they were every truly my baby. September always marks for me a comparison onto how far my children have come, how much they have learned and how much they have grown.

I am a parent to a fourth grader and first grader now. It hardly seems likely, but I am. A fourth grader who has grown so tall that the top of his head hits my chin. A first grader that has shed every last ounce of his adorably baby-chub and turned into a tall, skinny bean pole.

Who are these grown up boys anyway? How can they be mine?

September also gives me an opportunity to revisit my goals for my "new" year. I have goals. Concrete, well defined, goals. And I have a plan to get myself to those goals during my school year. September has inspired me. Because if there is anything that September shows me, it is that time is fleeting and moves more quickly than I thought possible.

I know that very soon, almost too soon, that fourth grader and first grader will be looking down at me, from their tall, lanky frames, stooping down to hug their old mom. And I have much to do before then. Much, much to do.