Much to My Chagrin, Summer is Not Endless

So, this is it. The last day of summer break. Today, I posted the quote at left on Facebook, and I think it's good advice.

So, I'm not going to wallow. But I am going to acknowledge that the end of summer and the beginning of a new semester is bittersweet. Here are some things I will miss, and some things I'm looking forward to.

I'll miss...

• My Zoom clothes. Currently, I'm in leggings and an oversized A Late Show tee shirt that's practically long enough to be a dress. Can't exactly go to class like this.
• Sleeping in. Since my classes don't start until 11, I can still sleep in by most people's standards. But I still have to set an alarm.
• Writing during the daylight hours. Classes haven't even started and already I've fallen into the blogging-after-dinner routine. Oh, well. At least I'm still posting.
• Keeping writing "on top." With no classes to plan and no papers to grade, writing could be at the top of my priority list. It took me a good chunk of the summer to get it back there and I'm not afraid it will fall off the list completely as it did earlier in the pandemic, but I'm sad to lose the balance I worked so hard to achieve.

I'm looking forward to....

• 

  GDJ via Pixabay

  Meeting my new students. Especially my freshmen, some of whom I actually met last Friday.
• Having all of my students in the same room at the same time. A little nervous about this, too, but we'll be masked, so I'm going to be optimistic and take it at face value (no pun intended).
• Working with the same fellow again. We have student fellows in our first year seminars, and I'm fortunate to have the same one I had last year. We work well together and I'm excited to see where we take things this year.
• Trying old-new things. I learned a lot of things from my online and hybrid teaching stints and I'm excited to transfer some of them to the classroom.
• Listening to books. My trip to and from school is pretty short, but I have some great reads on Audible to keep my reading on track. I'm especially enjoying memoirs read by the authors. It's like my own personal story time. 

Now if only I could figure out what to wear for the 90º first day of school....