Back to...Something New

This time of year is all about "Back to School." Our state recently passed a law that mandates schools to start after labor day, so the summer seems really long now. The beginning of September has always symbolized a new beginning, in fact it has always seemed to me more like the start of a new year than the one in January. I can remember as a kid we would ride our bikes over to the school every day at the end of August waiting to see if they posted the class lists on the doors. It was then that you would find out who your teacher was, and who your classmates would be, and in what room it would all happen. They don't do it that way nowadays, we just get a letter in the mail with the teacher's name and room number. But the effect is the same, it's just before a whole new year where everything would be different than it had been before, and everything is a possibility. And we would have fresh new clothes, and a set of mint condition school supplies, and even a new lunchbox. I know that sometimes I would imagine myself with a whole new personality to go with it all such as "Now I will be elegant and sophisticated!" or "Now I will be very organized and always write in blue pen."



It wasn't until a few years into my career when I noticed that this wasn't happening anymore; that September was just like any other month. I missed all of that newness. And there have been times when I might have liked to turn in my project, boss, and coworkers and spin the wheel for a whole new set, better or worse at least they'd be different. Not that there was ever a shortage of things changing, it's just that it was never quite as total and predictable as the start of a new school year.



So I am very pleased with the timing of my going back to work. My first day is going to be September 5, and it feels a lot like Back to School. I'll have a boss, and colleagues, and a project, but at this moment they are the unknown, chock full of possibility, and it's exciting not to know anything about them yet. It's like getting a magazine in the mail, unwrinkled and unread.



I was amused to learn that I will be getting my old passes, pager, and computer back. For whatever reason my old boss still had them, and the new department has picked them up. It was a little hard to part with these items when I left, they were so familiar they felt like appendages to my body, and I look forward to being reunited with them, weird as that is.



And I took Heather's advice and went shopping for new work clothes. I ordered a black pantsuit from Eddie Bauer, because it bothered me that I didn't have one to wear to my interview. Larry pointed out that I already got the job and therefore don't need an interview suit, but I am thinking of an email that was forwarded all around on the subject of "Every Woman Should Have" and it said interview suit, and if I'm not going to get my life advice from email forwards then where? I also got some of these sweaters that look like there is a shirt underneath but it is attached. Hard to describe but they looked kind of backtoschooly which I liked. And I got some shoes that I thought looked like what a grown-up professional woman should be wearing, instead of the ones I had reverted to in the last couple of years because they didn't hurt my feet but were once likened to the shoes of Mickey Mouse. And since it was B1G1 1/2 off, I got a second pair simply because they are cute and they have little fish on the sides. So I am READY.