Why the Beginning of the School Year Can Actually Be Fun

It is very hard to switch gears after you have gone all summer in a totally different mode than "school" mode. And once it starts to dawn on us that summer is over and a new school year is upon us, it is at that moment when we usually stop in our tracks and do some very negative assessments of how this year will go. But, you can convince yourself to remember that new beginnings are not all positive nor are they usually all negative experiences; you will probably land right where you need to be attitude wise.

There are times when I think back to the beginning of some school years and I remember fondly the sights, sounds and smells of freshly waxed floors, new clothes, the bus rides, and many more memories of the start of a new school year. Where will my locker be? Who are those new kids hanging out over there? How can I get some more new clothes? Everything was up for grabs at that pivotal point in my school year; after a few weeks, we would all just blend in again and go through the days like we all had a script or pattern drawn up.

There are the people who dread the beginning of the school year because of bad past experiences in the beginning of school years. That sets a bad precedent and you can start to dread the next time you have to face all of the "new" things that typically happen at this time. Especially when it starts out young, like kindergarten, and if there is another repeat performance of say a teacher mispronouncing your name horribly every year; well, it does tend to give you a negative attitude about the whole "new year" experience.

The one thing that can usually make or break a new experience is an open mind. The more we tell ourselves that this school year has to be this or has to be that right from the get-go; the more we set ourselves up for failure. The world will not always spin the way we want it to go and when we don't get what we have told ourselves we have to have right now in order to be happy; well, instant dissatisfaction and general crankiness.

So, let the first words out of your vocabulary be "fun", or "new", or "exciting" and then keep your mind open to the new possibilities that are going to present themselves before you.