It’s That Time Again

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As the first day of a new school year approaches, it hadn’t occurred to me that, for the first time in nearly two decades, none of my kids are going back – they’ve all graduated! I don’t know if it’s because, with three kids, I was locked into the parental rhythm of back-to-school shopping for so many years, but the beginning of September always feels like a time for change and turning over a new leaf, as well as shaking off the soporific effects of the summer sun and returning to our more mundane responsibilities. In the way that we don’t know what we have until it’s gone, I also hadn’t noticed how poignantly it would hit me, year after year, how much my children had not only grown, but become their own person. Now that they’re young adults making new beginnings out in the world – setting their own courses by their own hopes and dreams – I can say with heartfelt certainty that, as a new school year begins, I wish I could do it all again, exactly the same way.