Day 330 of 365 - New Beginnings
Ironic, I know, that I've titled this one New Beginnings a day after one titled The Final Act. But, I'm still here, aren't I?
It's the beginning of the Labor Day Weekend and that means the end of summer for students and final preparations for back to school. This is the weekend that the major highways to all the cities with universities and colleges will be clogged with parents or friends driving freshmen to their campuses. Any first year student staying in residence is expected to arrive this weekend to settle in and start their orientation. That is something that hasn't changed since I headed off to university in 1972.
I can still remember that very long drive from my small home town to the big city which I have lived in since. Parents of a high school friend who were making the trip with their daughter, offered me a ride. It seemed we would never get there, especially when we were slowed down in bumper to bumper traffic where the expressway led to a number of university and college cities. Then, suddenly we were here, with a new stage of life in front of us.
School has mostly been a positive experience for me, and I always looked forward to returning to classes since I was young. I loved to learn and appreciated the structure that the course curriculum and school routines created in my life. It gave me a sense of stability and I felt like it guaranteed my future in some way. Since I did end up with a degree in occupational therapy, which did provide me with career opportunities, I suppose my thought became reality. This is not necessarily the case for students in the present day, who don't seemed to be guaranteed much of anything other than learning for its own sake, which is very worthwhile, but does not repay large student loans.
I feel that I was fortunate to have various interesting job opportunities available to me. There was nothing I had to create for myself; these were simply existing positions which I could arrive to and begin working. Although I consider myself somewhat resourceful and would manage somehow, I wonder how young adults remain optimistic at present, when job searching and creation has become a full time job in itself and for the most part only results in some kind of temporary position and the expectation that they will be doing it all again in a year or two.
Still, this back to school time of year stirs up in me the sense of possibility. It's tempting to go out and buy pens, notebooks and printer paper when they are all discounted at this time. However, I may reserve that to printer paper only, as I stockpiled notebooks on clearance some time ago and have bought refills for pens I have that can use them. (This relates to a previous post about disposable pens - such a waste.)
I will be resuming some classes which took a break over the summer, including my group singing class and one of the NIA classes which I take at a different location. Other than those, there is nothing new definitively planned. I don't discount the possibility though that something else might draw my interest. It is never too late to start something new or, for that matter, go back to something previously left behind.
It's the beginning of the Labor Day Weekend and that means the end of summer for students and final preparations for back to school. This is the weekend that the major highways to all the cities with universities and colleges will be clogged with parents or friends driving freshmen to their campuses. Any first year student staying in residence is expected to arrive this weekend to settle in and start their orientation. That is something that hasn't changed since I headed off to university in 1972.
I can still remember that very long drive from my small home town to the big city which I have lived in since. Parents of a high school friend who were making the trip with their daughter, offered me a ride. It seemed we would never get there, especially when we were slowed down in bumper to bumper traffic where the expressway led to a number of university and college cities. Then, suddenly we were here, with a new stage of life in front of us.
School has mostly been a positive experience for me, and I always looked forward to returning to classes since I was young. I loved to learn and appreciated the structure that the course curriculum and school routines created in my life. It gave me a sense of stability and I felt like it guaranteed my future in some way. Since I did end up with a degree in occupational therapy, which did provide me with career opportunities, I suppose my thought became reality. This is not necessarily the case for students in the present day, who don't seemed to be guaranteed much of anything other than learning for its own sake, which is very worthwhile, but does not repay large student loans.
I feel that I was fortunate to have various interesting job opportunities available to me. There was nothing I had to create for myself; these were simply existing positions which I could arrive to and begin working. Although I consider myself somewhat resourceful and would manage somehow, I wonder how young adults remain optimistic at present, when job searching and creation has become a full time job in itself and for the most part only results in some kind of temporary position and the expectation that they will be doing it all again in a year or two.
Still, this back to school time of year stirs up in me the sense of possibility. It's tempting to go out and buy pens, notebooks and printer paper when they are all discounted at this time. However, I may reserve that to printer paper only, as I stockpiled notebooks on clearance some time ago and have bought refills for pens I have that can use them. (This relates to a previous post about disposable pens - such a waste.)
I will be resuming some classes which took a break over the summer, including my group singing class and one of the NIA classes which I take at a different location. Other than those, there is nothing new definitively planned. I don't discount the possibility though that something else might draw my interest. It is never too late to start something new or, for that matter, go back to something previously left behind.
Comments
Post a Comment