Over the past week I have heard many stories of fresh starts and hope for new beginnings. September is of course the beginning of the school year. For so many parents and children it is a time of expectations, with maybe some anxiety and apprehension at the prospect of a new school year, a new teacher a sometimes a new school. Parents have hopes for their children and teenagers; that they will adjust, that they will find new friends, that they will be able to spread their wings and flourish in the educational system. Children and teens have a mixture of excitement at seeing some of their old friends they may not have connected with over the summer, and apprehension as they may not know who is in their classroom, may be encountering a new teacher they do not know, and unknown expectations from their new classes.
We all see September as a time of new beginnings to a certain level, as we were all brought up in the school system. September was a time of showing off your new clothes and your new knap sack. I remember the smell of new pencils being sharpened, getting ready for the first day, the promise to be more organized this year, to take better care of my class notes and my binders.
As adults we look within at what new beginnings await us, at what habit got left neglected over the summer months. Some make promises of exercising and going to the gym more often, others to improve their eating habits. Whatever new beginning you are looking at, the promise of self-improvement is usually at the core of it.
The air is fresher, the nights cooler, the trees changing colours. It is a time of change for Mother Nature. Let it be a time of change for yourself. Give yourself permission to look deep within, to see what your hopes and aspirations are, and, like that child entering a new grade at school, be full of expectations and wonder at what might lie ahead.
Ray St-Amour, MSW, RSW
Maray Counselling