Today is the first Labour Day in 14 years that I have had the opportunity to spend it like the majority of Canadians, which is NOT labouring. While in university I was either an orientation leader or resident advisor and labour day was move in day, so I was busy. Professionally I have spent the last 9 years working in post secondary institutions with 3 years in residence and orientation. The other 6 years, although I wasn’t required to work, I did work in student services so I found a way to engage myself to support other departments who had to be open, or by opening my services for students coming back to campus. I have always felt strongly that when you choose to work in student services at a post – secondary institution your clients are students so Labour Day, is actually a working day not a holiday…..but that is a soap box for another day.
Over the past week the temperature has been falling, the leaves are beginning to change, and the morning air is as crisp and clean as the new dew that covers your car windshield. It is always my favourite time of year.
This morning I woke up and went outside to grab the paper and I inhaled a perfect fall morning with a smile and excitement for the day to come. But as I exhaled I became aware of the reason for my excitement, and my smile quickly faded. The phrase, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, resonated for the first time. My excitement was anticipation of the energy and rush I got from seeing the students coming back to campus and for the first time in 14 years, I wasn’t going to be a part of that.
It is not a secret that I love working in post-secondary because of the students and students are their best in September. That first two weeks of school were always my best two weeks, reconnecting with friends, going out dancing, and getting a fresh start. Assignments aren’t due for another few weeks, and your bank account is full from 4 months of work. A new chance to start again and to reach the potential you knew you had within you. The energy on campus is palpable. It is truly the most wonderful time of the year.
Professionally September has always been an insane time of year for me. For most of my professional career, September consisted of 10 – 12 hours days at least for the first couple weeks. Despite this insane schedule, I still always got excited. It could be 6:30 am and I might be walking in the dark to catch the bus or train to get to work, knowing that it would be dark again by the time I was walking home but with a deep breath, the smell of fall could quickly fill me with excitement to see the students back and feel the energy that I had missed over the past 4 months.
That energy is a rush of optimism that comes flooding back to campuses across North America which I find intoxicating. Despite the craziness of my professional fall schedule there are always moments when I can stand back and watch the students excitement personify in how they greet their friends, how they organized their binders and just simply hustling between classes. I try to steal at least a couple minutes every day to watch and it takes me back to the five falls I spent at UW. In a time before facebook and high speed internet, I remember how excited I would be to see old friends I hadn’t spoken to in weeks and how optimistic and enthusiastically we would talk about our upcoming classes and activities – Nothing could stop us! Then I refocus on the new students and see that same optimism personified in front of me. These students are strangers to me, and it is almost a decade later, but the emotions are still the same. The emotion is – I can conquer anything and I am excited about doing it. Who wouldn’t get excited about coming to work and feeling that energy at your busiest most stressful time of year.
Today went slowly for me. I actually woke up not feeling well at all and have spent most of the day watching various Labour Day marathons on TV. For years I have dreamt of a Labour Day like today, a day I could sit and relax and not have to worry about the students. Again, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone and instead of feeling excited for a labour day free of labour, my thoughts went to my friends and colleagues working at Move-In Days across North America and I felt envious of the exciting day ahead of them. This morning it seemed odd that I woke up ill because I felt great yesterday and it seemed that my malaise attitude came out of nowhere. As I write this I think I realize that maybe me feeling ill is just my body feeling sad.
Sad that I don’t get to be around the great optimism of strangers that remind me of myself.
Sad that I am not labouring on this fine Labour Day.
I can’t wait until September 6th, 2010.
September 6th 2010 – I will give you my time to help in whatever insanely busy, start of semester, first year/continuing/grad student oriented task that you can come up with
You better hold me to this one Alyson!
Talk to you soon,
Teri
Your writing quite simply blows me away
That fall feeling of being able to conquer anything….is often followed by that winter feeling of settling in, staying warm, short days and long nights with the emphasis on longer nights…to spring when everything starts to feel new, and fresh and there are always possibilities on the horizon, to summer and the laziness of sunny mornings that you know will likely stretch into a long sunny day without the urgency required to enjoy life cause there is still so much time to do it. The idea being that it is a pattern in life for us to go through cycles. You will have that fall feeling again Wolosh. I know you will. Go sharpen some pencils, grab a pad of paper, go for a walk in that fall air, if you can find some fall leaves pass through them and listen to them crunch. Grab a tea and appreciate how warm it feels on the chill of your fingers when its still too warm to have gloves on. You have an opportunity now to experience fall in a completely different way. Make yourself a student again. Write down some thoughts. The ones you choose to share with us really give me pause for reflection. There really is so much out there left to learn. You’re doing a great job of teaching. Hope you feel less sad tomorrow. There’s always the possibility of that in the next day. Love you. Al