School Daze

School doors finally opened this week, ending the frenzy of last-minute vacations and the thrill of getting new school supplies, sturdy backpacks, and stylish clothing. Having worked in schools most of my life, I am probably more sensitive to this time of year than others. The cyclical nature of entering a new school year brings me comfort and hope in the same way that the Midwest corn harvest brings structure and solace to life. I have always felt that our lives should be more like the school calendar. We should yearly experience a new beginning where we can have a fresh start surrounded by a new crop of classmates who will soon become familiar friends. Some would claim that the adult version of this experience is New Year's, but I would disagree. New Years is similar to the start of school in that greater than normal amounts of alcohol are consumed by partygoers and by frazzled mothers, but New Years Day leads to January 2nd, when we return to the same old workplace and the same old routines punctuated by Christmas bills replacing cheerful holiday greetings. The start of a new school year changes the rhythms and routines of our lives. For children, the start of the new school year is truly a blank slate ushering forth the beginning of a new life within a new community.

My photo this week was chosen as a nod to the start of a new school year and new beginnings featuring high hopes and new friendships. I stylized my photo more than I wished for use in my blog to make it seem more generic, as in a back-to-school advertisement. The subjects are personal to me, and I didn't wish to draw attention to them; hence, the border, shading, and textures were applied. Needless to say, this was not a posed shot, and if there was a soundtrack for this moment, you would hear adults shouting in the background that the children should sit properly on the bench as if they were ready to recite their ABCs in an Amish classroom. You can see that the freedom of the laid-back summer days has not left their bodies. However, I couldn't help but notice that even in this uninhibited state, they are closed together in an embrace of one another that wasn't coached. Touching each other during this moment was what came naturally and served a much different purpose than the kind of touching in the backseat of the car during summer vacation. As parents, their embrace is something that we will wish for them to do throughout the different stages of their adult lives—carrying forward a little piece of their childhood, which is silently slipping away.

       Slipping through my fingers all the time, She leaves home in the early morning.                                        Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

Sometimes I wish I could freeze the picture And save it from the funny tricks of time                                              Slipping through my fingers all the time.

 ABBA - "Slipping Through My Finders"