New Snow

I've had another fresh start. I'm at a new place in a new town with a couple new jobs. I've got to tell you: Life is good.

I worry sometimes that I'm addicted to that "new life" smell. You can start over fresh and clean, with a blank slate. It seems that the past few years have had several slates come and go. Still, there's something nice about unlimited possibilities and it always feels that way at the beginning.

While I outfit a new classroom (which is looking quite cave-like at the moment), I get to see people lugging school supplies into the schools, putting books on shelves, brightly colored posters on walls. I've got to say, we're eager for the little rugrats to come in those doors. Ah, the bliss of September. Remind me of this moment mid April. At the stores, kids are buying new clothes, new shoes, new binders and pencils. I love it.

When I first started telling people that I was moving back North, I was scolded, "Why? They have snow there!" It's true. A whole lot from what I hear, too. Though my summer has been much, much, much cooler than it would have been down in the desert, I still think it's too hot. I am itching for fall. Pumpkins, hot cider, scarves, rain boots crunching on leaves... it's enough to make me tear up a bit. And then, there's winter! Snow falling at night on quiet streets, lit up by street lights and Christmas lights and starlight... Bundling up against the wind, trying not to fall on icy slopes (no more broken elbows!), and having the cold steal your breath for just a second the first moment you step outside. Then, and only then, is spring a fantastic respite from what you've just endured.

And then I got it. I need my seaons to change, figuratively and literally. I like progress, movement, notable distances travelled. I like deadlines to approach steadily, and noticeably pass. I am happy and content because I've had another season pass and I'm newly excited for things I've known before. It's another town, another school year, another fall. Hopefully, I will need fewer new cities. :) It's an expensive business, all that moving. But I hope I can enjoy first days - of school, of fall, of winter, of the state fair, of summer - for the rest of my life.