Today has been a very strange day for me. All day I have been going through the motions but I have been feeling like I am missing something. It is the day after Labor Day or Labour Day if you are Canadian, and that is the day that I usually start back to work. But today I didn’t. For the first time since well, I guess since I was four, I did not start school today. I have always gone back to school in September, as a student and then as a teacher. Last night I actually had a good night sleep. Normally I can’t sleep the night before school because I am excited to meet my students and I have the first day jitters. Not last night, I slept like a log. It was weird.
My girls don’t start school until tomorrow- It’s a NYC thing. So, we spent the day in Central Park meeting kids from A’s third grade class. I felt like I should be somewhere else, doing something else. It was a weird feeling.
For the first time in my life, since I was old enough to work, I don’t have a job. I will get to go with the girls to school tomorrow and walk with them to their classes. I will get to pick them up. This year I will be able to volunteer and be part of the parent’s association. I won’t miss all of the little things because I am in class at the same time that they are. I won’t have to take a personal day to see a Christmas Concert or attend a Kindergarten Breakfast. It is a weird feeling.
Perhaps this will be the hardest challenge for me in this big move to New York City. So often a job defines who we are. I am not sure how I really feel about it, I am sure it won’t even seem real until sometime in October. Right now it just feels weird.
A & R Walking to the Bus Stop on the First Day of School Last Year
It's Always An Adventure 