Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.  -- Seneca

This is the time of year when everyone is asking the same question: 

“ARE YOU READY FOR SCHOOL TO START?” 

Depending on who is asked, there may a variety of answers to the question.  Some approach the new school year with excitement, some are nervous and anxious, some wish summer vacation would go on forever.  Whatever your perspective, I encourage you to think a bit differently this year.  

Often we approach events, tasks, or projects as a “line” of steps to be accomplished, items to be checked off, or things to “get through” before we reach the END.  In our busy lives, it is easy to start a project, or a plan, or a goal, or just about anything. Finishing tends to be a bit more difficult. Some of it might be attributed to all of those steps between starting and finishing, or perhaps the loss of interest and enthusiasm.  Sometimes we find ourselves wishing we could “just be done already” with whatever it is that we are in the midst of. It’s times like these that we fail to put in our best effort. We arrive at what seems like an end, only to celebrate briefly and move on to what we see as the next starting line, forgetting about the race we just completed. 

As humans we need to keep our lives full.  Full of family, full of friends, full of new challenges, full of enjoyable activities.  Once something ends, be it a relationship, a degree, a job, the ability to perform certain activities, if we pay attention and keep our eyes open we will see how that previous situation leads directly into something new. We can think about the new school year in the same way.  While the previous year has ended, we all carry our experiences, our knowledge and skills, our successes, and our lessons learned, into our next beginning.  

New beginnings come from growth experiences and provide the potential for further growth experiences.  When we think about beginnings in this light, that “line” becomes more of a circle. The end of one thing leads to the beginning of the next.  We realize that all that has yet to come will be built on all that has come before. This helps to keep us moving forward and setting new goals.  It keeps us from becoming stagnant or giving up entirely This year I challenge all of us to remember to keep looking for new beginnings, to keep moving forward, and to keep focusing on a future that we see with interest, passion, and optimism.  Best wishes for a fabulous new beginning as we head into school year 2019-2020!