Not Back to School

For a whole bunch of people, the end of August and beginning of September is Back to School time. It may be because you are returning to school or you have children returning to school.

Earlier this week I saw school age children getting on a school bus and it caught me off-guard. I didn't realize that time was upon us again. I don't have children and I haven't gone back to school in fifteen years, so even though I knew it was the general time, when I saw evidence of it, I was surprised. 

It made me think about fifteen years ago. I graduated from university in the spring and had started my first full time job shortly after. After a couple of paycheques, i had leased myself a brand new 1999 Pontiac Grand Am GT with all the bells and whistles including a sunroof. Now lets flash forward to about the 20th of September. It was a bright sunny morning as I'm driving to work with the windows down and the sunroof open as I thought to myself, "Another cool morning, it's been like this for a few days now, I hope it warms back up soon."

On September 20th, in Winnipeg, you are not looking at it warming up in the morning for several months but, my mind was still in summer mode. I had not started school in the fall for the first time in seventeen years. In fact, I had not started school in the fall for the first time that I can remember. It was imprinted on my brain that starting class means the weather is going to start cooling down. Crisp morning would become the norm again because I'm back in school and I am returning to normal from what ever adventure I undertook that summer.

Back to school is an exciting time. If you are returning, it means you are going to start a new adventure and learn something. It means you will get to see some people you may not have seen in a while. However, if you have no vested interest in the back to school routine, you won't even notice it pass until you see children boarding a bus or notice that they are not around during the weekday.

If you are going back to school, good luck. If you are like me and currently don't have a vested interest, enjoy the long week-end and live another great day.