September has the ability to feel more like the start of a new year than January. People

migrating home after their summer adventures and the return of the cool weather, brings a sense of something new and of settling back into normal.

September is also (most obviously) the beginning of the school year; school always finds you. It’s like a child who closes his eyes and counts too quickly for a game of hide-and-seek. Ready or not, here I come!

My personal feelings about the beginning of the year are pretty undecided, and only rest on the cop out of a conclusion that September is the most bittersweet month of them all.

Though the easy summer days of sleeping in and relaxing are over, there is an annoying sense of satisfaction that comes from the productivity of getting up at the ring of your alarm clock and fulfilling your busy school schedule.

Does the productivity of a school schedule trump the footloose-and-fancy-free rest of a summer day? I’m not sure, but I think that the balance between the two seems to be a winning combination.

I’ll begrudgingly admit that there are some advantages to school starting. You get to see all of your friends, in one common place, but that place is the classroom where you speak at the teacher’s discretion. Some use school starting as a shopping excuse to build their arsenal of school supplies and revamp their wardrobe. But the excitement of the new things always deteriorates into the mundane lull of the working week.

Sure, in school you end up gazing out the window to the beautiful fall day and wishing you were out there. But in the few after-school hours, we tend to accomplish more in the gorgeous outdoors than we ever did in a full summer day.

Of course, my argument is based on the most beautiful weather of September, (which may only last as long as a weekend) where the oranges and yellows of the trees are vibrant and the weather is delightfully brisk.

Once the reality of dark and clouded days, accompanied by powerful, chilling winds and rain sets in, being locked in a heated classroom doesn’t seem nearly as bad.

That very same classroom can bring massive amounts of boredom, worry and unnecessary stress. But it’s the harder stuff that makes the highs of life that much higher.

Without school, free time, weekends or the glorious summer break itself would feel a fraction as sweet if they were not earned. And on the final note, I can almost look foreword to school just in the sweet anticipation of how good a deserved weekend will feel. This somewhat paradoxical state of mind is what makes September one of the most bittersweet month of them all.

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