A friend recently posted on Facebook: “Can’t we reset summer?”
That’s the way I feel. How can an hour spent in the dentist’s chair feel like eternity, and a whole summer feel like it’s an hour long?
I shouldn’t complain. As a school librarian, I have summers off (in theory, anyway). It seems like almost every day during the past two months has been sunny. Even when it rained, it wasn’t for the whole day. This was not good thing for crops and lakes and home gardens, of course; I’m just saying there was no lack of pleasant weather.
But I did have some personal complications that explain my desire to restart summer, which begins, ironically, on my birthday, June 21. I took a class from hell that consumed five weeks of my life which I will never get back. I ran a summer library program one morning a week, which was fun, but it did mean that I only had one completely “free” week all summer.
Just as I started to feel relaxed, my fall class began!
Now I’ve been back to work for a week, and school starts in a couple of days.
On the bright side, the start of school is always exciting. The French call this return la rentrée, or reentry, which is an apt description. It sounds like astronauts coming back to earth. We have been out exploring, too, and now have to get back to the real world.
After vacations I like to proclaim, “Reentry is always difficult.” Though we are excited to catch up with colleagues and students there is much work to be done first. At one of my libraries, I unpacked four boxes of books and three boxes of supplies. I began the arduous process of updating our patron records.
Kindergarteners come in, sixth graders move to the middle school, a whole class has graduated high school. New students have arrived on every level.
A summer’s worth of magazines await processing, and we have to deal with all those books as well.
At the 7-12 school, the custodians did a fabulous job of cleaning the library. This job required them to move all the furniture to the back of the room. The young men who are the summer help crew then set some of it, under my supervision, in the front of the room, so I could use that area for the summer library. Last week, they moved it all back while I wasn’t there. I had to smile when I noticed that they had moved a full bookcase of novels, which is on wheels and belongs in the back of the library, all the way to the front. Ah, well, there is always a certain amount of reorganization to be done.
I admit that I enjoy opening boxes of stuff, especially since I usually have forgotten what I’ve ordered. Stacks of brightly-colored Post-it Notes will make the task of checking out hundreds of textbooks to high school students a little more pleasant. (We stick them on the books with the students’ names on them.)
The start of the school year provides a fresh start for everyone. I am grateful for that opportunity. Everyone should have a chance to reenter every now and then. There are always new faces among the faculty and staff. Some students change so much you almost don’t recognize them. Formerly scruffy middle-school students decide they want to be the fashion icons of the ninth grade. Younger students can’t wait to get their hands on books; older students are anxious to get their laptops.
Everyone will share their summer highlights. What were mine? The week my husband, Paul, and I spend on Penobscot Bay was as wonderful as it always is. This year we were there for the Fourth of July. We enjoyed the small-town parade, ate a lobster roll and watched the fireworks from the deck of the cottage.
Paul and I try to visit Boston each summer, and we had a great visit, which I described in part in a previous column. We like to take the Downeaster, which makes traveling a lot more fun.
This summer I also had a special treat when I met my longtime friend, Carol, in Boston. We have been friends since middle school, and have kept in touch with semi-annual letters. We hadn’t seen each other in years, but when I went to a library conference in Boston in January, we met up.
Carol lives about 30 miles south of the city, and often comes up on the weekend via commuter rail. We had a delightful time last winter, and I suggested we meet a few times a year, since the train makes it so convenient for me.
So I went down by myself earlier this month and met Carol for lunch and a visit to the Institute of Contemporary Art. It was a beautiful day, and Boston’s Seaport District was alive with people. The harbor was filled with pleasure boat — even a schooner sailed by.
Our childhood hometown is about 50 miles south of the city, and once we 16 or so, Carol and I would go to Boston on the bus to eat lunch and go to bookstores or movies. It was great fun, as was this day. I didn’t think at all that I was reprising my youth — instead, I was opening a new page in my book of life.
Those are the events I will mention when people ask me about my summer. But I also treasured those moments I spent on our deck, with our dogs, just sitting and doing nothing but looking at the clouds.
It’s true: I wouldn’t mind starting this summer all over again.
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