92. A Fresh Start

Nora may not be a student anymore, but she’s always been a fan of a new beginning. It’s never too late to give yourself one right this moment.

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

INTRO MUSIC

I love a fresh start.

A new notebook.

A new year.

A new month.

Anything that signifies the closing of one chapter and the opening of another.

I haven’t been in school since 2005, but I still get that New Year feeling every September. I live in a place where it’s always summery, but in the midwest, the change of seasons could be felt, tasted, smelled…heard. 

A new school year meant a new version of ourselves: we were no longer a fourth grader, but a FIFTH grader. We were no longer a freshman, but a SOPHOMORE. New versions of ourselves, minted year after year. New challenges and accomplishments, new milestones. The promise that if we weren’t placed in class with our best friends this year, there was always another.

I miss that…a lot.

And I am also trying to remember that I can make my own new year, my own new start, whenever I want.

There is nothing magical about the turning of a calendar or the start of a new season, other than the magic we imbue it with. We have the power to decide in this minute – or maybe the next one – or, I mean, let’s just start it tomorrow, no rush – to decide on a fresh start.

To say that this is a new beginning, even if nobody is going to take a photo of us to commemorate it.

Sometimes I do this when I am in the car, doing that thing that grown-ups do where we just…sit in the car when we get to our destination, just sit. Just sit to have a little time and space between the last thing and the next thing. I will say to myself, okay, open this car door and start something new.

Does it work??

Like all immeasurable goals and all practices based on the narrow band of my own highly subjective experience…sure! Sure it does!

Because the alternative for me is just being stuck where I am and how I am, and when I don’t like where I am…that isn’t always in my power. But if I don’t like HOW I am…parts of that ARE in my control. I can actually decide not to call my friends and vent and rehash a frustrating situation and instead write it down in a journal and let it go. I CAN say Nora, you know that two cups of coffee is your limit…so do NOT pour yourself a third. 

I do not need another notebook, but I will buy one just to be sure.

OUTRO MUSIC 

CREDITS