Hope

I know a couple of posts ago that I said that I wasn't going to talk anymore about our vacation to Cancun, but I wanted to lead off with this little tidbit (I promise that the whole entry isn't going to be about our vacation)...

...Someone asked me the other day what was my favorite day of this vacation. I answered that it was the same as every other vacation I'd ever been on: My favorite day of vacation is always the day BEFORE vacation starts. That's because the excitement about vacation is at its highest then, and because maybe--just maybe--THIS vacation might be the best vacation ever! Now I know that's not going to happen. Things are going to go wrong on vacation. There is going to be disappointment. But for just a moment on that day before vacation, there's a blank slate, and everything is perfect!

I feel that way today, too. It's August 1. Now I know most people think of summer vacation as being June, July, and August, but schools start so much earlier today than in decades past that--for me, as an educator--I really think of the beginning of the school year as August 1. And today has that same feeling as the day before vacation. Ten months of limitless possibility lay in front of me. Oh, what could happen! What things might we accomplish this year!

And I'm not alone in my feelings of anticipation and excitement. I'm sure you've seen the TV ad for Back to School sales at Staples, the one that shows the dejected kids staring at the ground while their father dances around them to the tune of the Christmas standard "It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year." The truth is, though, I was always excited to go back to school. And my kids are, too. They don't want summer to end, but that limitless possibility that lies before them is so very enticing. Two days ago we went to a Staples store to get--yup, you guessed it--school supplies, and I noticed as we shopped that there were a number of other parents in the store with their kids picking up supplies. And no one looked dejected. Everyone was excited to get their multicolored notebooks and their packs of pens and that book cover with just the right piece of pop culture on it. My girls have already packed all of their school supplies into their backpacks, and I've caught them a couple of times getting back into the backpack and checking ("just one more time!") their items against the school-supplied list.

It's not that any of us have any bitter feelings about this past summer. It's been great for us, but it did inevitably fall short of how wonderful we perceived it might be on June 1. But here we are again on August 1 with that feeling. It's a feeling of hope, I guess. Look what lies ahead of us.

This could be the most amazing year ever!