Happy New Year!!!

Many of you might be surprised that the title of this post is "Happy New Year!" but for teachers around the world this is indeed the start of a new year (a school year albeit, but a new year nonetheless.)  You will notice from the slow down in my recent posts that this is an extra busy part of my year!  People often question me on what it is that I have been doing these past 2 weeks to get ready for school!  The list is too exhaustive for this blog...but the work goes on and on....

But come Monday morning, it will be another school year for me and the students in my classroom.  Even as a kid this was always such an exciting time of year for me.  (Yes, I was one of those crazy kids that always wanted to go back to school.)  And so today I was thinking of a quote from one of my favorite movies, "You've Got Mail.  The quote goes like this, "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."  Although the context of this quote it a little different, the idea is the same.  I love this time of year.  I love buying school supplies and setting my classroom up with fresh posters and new ideas.  All those things that didn't go well last year don't matter this year because this is a new year! I think for as long as I live my mind will think in school years and not calendar years.  The fall is the new year for me. 

And so today I got to thinking about this idea of being a new year.  Yes, it's a new year in the classroom for me, but this can also be the start of the new year in my personal life too.  Some recent events in my personal have caused me to stop and really reflect on many aspects of my life.  Friends, family, work, singlehood, my spirituality, and just the day to day stuff.  And I began to think about the status quo.  Sometimes, I have a tendency to be a status quo kind of girl.  The idea if it's not broken, don't fix it!  But I am realizing the status quo is a very dangerous place to be.  The status quo often translates into stagnate, lifeless, and just plain boring. Kathleen Kelly, again from "You've Got Mail" says the following in the movie, "Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void." That quote sums it up so well.  Have I been brave? Or have I allowed fear to shape me into being status quo?  There is a very cliche song in the children's movie "High School Musical" about sticking to the status quo.  The groups of the high school don't want the members of each little social circle to venture out of their own circle.  If you are a jock...you do jock things.  If you are a brainiac...you do brainiac things. (You get the picture, right?)  Anyways, I realized that I had decided to just accept what I was and stick with that.  BUT in doing that...I stopped exploring and seeing what it is that is out there waiting to be explored.

So as I begin another new school year, with a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils and fancy bulletin boards, I am starting a new chapter in my life as well.  I hope this chapter is full of fun, adventure, love (maybe even a little romance?), learning, and stretching.  I am working to step out of my little status quo box and step into unexplored territory. 

 

I hope you will all come along on my adventure!?