SeeSaw Week

I consider this week - the last days of August and the first days of September - to be a seesaw week. It's a moment that waits on the threshold marking time like no other week of the year. The week before Labor Day is the time of anticipating the school year ahead but still wanting to hold onto more summer vacation. I know several friends in other states have been back to school for a few weeks now, but New Jersey schools traditionally start just after Labor Day and since every college and seminary I've attended does as well, the last waning days of August have always had a bittersweet quality in my eyes. I look forward to cooler days and nights ahead (we are back in the 90s here in Jersey - ugh) but still want just a little more of the summer leisure. There is a genuine excitement about seeing friends, colleagues, and students again, but a desire to delay the inevitable schedule and rigor that comes with the school year.
And even though I've been teaching, tutoring, and reading on my research for my dissertation proposal all summer long, I still feel the same angst that I've always associated with August. I am not entering the traditional classroom in the next few days, but I am looking forward to the opportunities to delve back into my studies with renewed vigor, and yet I remain a little wistful that I didn't eek out more of summer's sweetness. I hang in the liminal or 'in-between-place' of wanting to get out of the rut I've made for myself during the hot humid days and finding a groove of motivation and productivity. I anticipate good things for September 2010 with some travel for both school and church. Frustratingly, August 2010 has not been the most stellar month insome respects (namely training to run the 5K) so I am looking for the upswing that comes with the seesaw moment, hoping to push past where I've been to see higher and farther than I have recently.