Although I have been retired from teaching for 15 years, every time September approaches, I get butterflies thinking about the beginning of a school year. As a child, this was a time filled with emotions, excitement, potential feelings of growing up and being in the next grade and level. As a teacher, I would have a sleepless night before that first day. I would have gone school shopping and laid out the most perfect outfit. However September weather was always precarious, and too often most of us would choose an outfit for a cool fall day when the weather was summer-like.
But everyone’s shoes would be new, new haircuts, new outlooks, hopes, dreams, and expectations of what the year would be like. There would be a tremendous amount of nervousness, stress, and anxiety that went along with it as well.
Seeing classmates and colleagues after the summer break, was comforting but came with anxiety. Did they change over the summer? Did I? Will we still be friends? Every September, I think about those first days of school, the promise and hope of a successful year, a new beginning, new opportunities and experiences .
In my family, I am not alone. I have spawned multiple generations of people who are having all the same emotions at this special time of year. There is my son who is the executive director of a school in Boston, another son who is a music teacher, and now my granddaughter, who is eagerly starting her first teaching experience with Teach for America.
To all the students and teachers who are about to start their new year soon, I wish you a wonderful, productive and fun filled year. And to everyone who isn’t a student or teacher, I wish the same to you as well.
Judy Gutlerner
Amherst
