The first day of school.

Today my newsfeed was filled with pictures of kids going off to their first day of a new school year.  Bright young faces smiling for the camera, all of them excited by a new beginning, all of them trying and failing to hide a bit of the trepidation that comes from the unknown possibilities of a new beginning.

I loved being at home to greet my kids after their first day of school.  Each of them talking over the other and telling stories so fast they didn’t really make sense.  Each recalled event interrupting the next and the next and spilling out in a cacophony of excitement like a mountain stream overflowing its banks in a rush to tell the valley it’s spring.

School was always a strange mix of familiarity and newness.  Rekindled friendships mixed with a familiar routine are juxtaposed with new teachers and new expectations.  Maybe new friendships, new ideas or a new romance will lead you to a destination you never saw coming.  It’s hard to tell on that first day.

It seems we are always a bit scared by new beginnings, but if you could pick a day when everything would stop changing, would you?  Everything would be forever familiar and you’d always have the same people around you and you would sink into the warm comfort of routine.  But if you think about your first day of school and all of the things you’ve learned since then, all of the new heights you’ve soared since that day?  All of the friendships? All of the incredible experiences and great times you’ve shared?  Would you throw all of that away?  I wouldn’t.  New beginnings are what led me to you.  Maybe all of us carry around a day or time we wish we could hold onto forever, something we wish never did change.  Maybe the best lesson from all those years of school was taught to us on the first day.  Don’t be afraid of new beginnings, change is not a sacrifice it’s a privilege, let go and soar!