the summer signals its imminent end

It’s August.

The evenings are noticeably shorter now, and the acceleration of time effect that always begins this month has started. August usually feels like a collapsing telescope; causing the end of summer to rush at you unexpectedly. The next thing you know it’s September and you’re digging sweaters out of the back of your closet.

Even as a kid I remember August as possessing a kind of desperate pace. It was the time to squeeze in the last of the holiday trips and outings. You tried to have as much fun as possible while ignoring the Spectre of School that loomed ever closer as the last frantic days dwindled away.

It never helped that by the end of July school uniforms were in the shops, and text books, notebooks, pens and pencils were on sale–an ever-present reminder that September was no longer the faraway threat it had seemed in June.

To be honest, I was the kind of geeky kid who secretly enjoyed school. Not so much that I yearned to be back in the classroom, but I didn’t hate the prospect either.

You see, I’ve always enjoyed learning.

I didn’t always warm to the method of learning as established in our educational system, but I understood the net benefit after you subtracted the tedious repetition and the occasional moribund teacher.

I was thinking about this on Saturday, when I succumbed to the sale in the local stationary shop on notebooks and stacked up on supplies for September. The familiarity of the ritual stoked in me a sense of anticipation for College. Because, as much as I might have trepidation about this return to full-time (well, as full-time as graduate work gets) studentdom, I’m looking forward to new opportunities to learn and develop as a writer.

As much as I worry about the challenges ahead of me, I also look forward to meeting them.

And I hope to have some fun as well!