If you've ever watched "You've Got Mail" you will recognize that reference about newly sharpened pencils. Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) sends yet another cyber message to his unknown email buddy, Kathleen Kelly, played by Meg Ryan suggesting that fall in New York is just about the best there is and if he knew her address he would send her "a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils." That one line stirs up quite the visual for me.
It's September. Schools are back in session. New shoes, clothes, and other supplies have been purchased. The hallway floors are still shiny and clean. Posters in classrooms still look new. The classrooms smell clean and fresh. It's fall, no matter what the calendar might say! Soon the leaves will become brilliant with colors that no fresh box of crayons can match.
We usually think of goals and goal setting at the traditional time of year~ New Year's Day. That is a great time to set goals and ponder the positive changes we can make in our lives. Some really do set goals and really do accomplish them! I applaud them! I struggle with the following through part of goal setting, the actual get.up.and.do.it part. Maybe that's one of the reasons I love the beginning of the school year. I look at the new school year as another fresh start and the perfect time to evaluate goals already set (and that are still setting there!) and to perhaps undertake some new ones.
I really have always loved the onset of a new school year. When I was young, we ordered school clothes out of a Sears catalog more than actually going into a store to make the purchase. I remember the fresh smell of new notebooks, folders, and yes~newly sharpened pencils! Weird memory I know. I went to school in the 60's and 70's, all my notebooks had big flowers and peace signs on them! Occasionally I would get folders with cats or horses on them. Funny the things you remember about childhood. This is me in the 3rd grade. I loved 3rd grade. My grandma Reed was my teacher and it was an exciting time!
