For some reason, it’s all memories of September lately. Start of a new year, start of a new football season, start of a new term. Cool at night, and a new jacket to wear with it – not to mention a replacement pair of jeans, at least one or two new shirts of some sort, and in all likelihood a new pair of kicks to help cope with the endless hills and stairs of high school and college and grad school. (Reebok Phase 1 throughout high school, a Nike deal thereafter until I left Vandy.) A fresh look, a fresh start. Nice thing to be able to count on every year.
It occurs to me that you don’t often get a reset point in adulthood. Change of jobs, maybe, or when you marry or have another kid, or if you move house or to a new town. But for the most part, there’s not a time when you get a regular chance to make a fresh start of things.
The other thing that strikes me lately is that I went from a high school where everything was a half-hour drive away (or worse) to a college where everything was inside a fenced perimeter – and then a grad school where everything you’d want or need was within walking distance. Those were the years that really transformed me into a person who didn’t want to need a car for anything. And now, as we shiver through another San Francisco summer, I feel the need for a sharp new set of clothes and a reliable pair of kicks to step out under the cloudy gray autumnal sky.
Now I just need to shop through my own closet and schedule a day trip on Saturday…