I’ve always looked forward to September, since I dislike summer the way most people dislike winter. Growing up Jewish, I enjoyed the idea of the new year starting in autumn, my favorite season, and since my life also revolved around the school year as a kid, I became even more convinced my people had gotten it right. Rosh Hashanah, which begins tonight, remains one of those Jewish celebrations I have kept in my life despite being an atheist.
This year’s onslaught of back-to-school advertising made me a little sad, as it was a year ago that I started my last (and best) semester of teaching. I miss that classroom. But, as I wrote about this week, it’s time to shift focus towards other plans and goals. Last night I decided to practice what I preached, and wrote an email to my thesis advisor and mentor with a proposal for how to get my academic writing back on track. It might be my thesis, it might be a journal article, but I’ll be damned if I allow all that time, work, and love I put into my career to simply vanish into the ether along with my health.
I sometimes like to say I “ruined my health” doing something from the past few years. As in, “I ruined my health in the pursuit of my education.” It’s not true, or is only partly true – my current disability is due to a whole mess of stuff and not just one thing – but it makes me feel like a character out of Dickens, or a classical composer. Those people were always ruining their health doing something. Also it makes my accomplishments seem much more impressive that way.
Anyway, happy new year, and may it be sweet like apples and honey. I send you off with “You Are Never Alone” by Socalled, klezmer hip-hop made even more awesome by this trippy video.
