I came to yet another funny realization about my new life the other day. The school year is starting. And I almost missed it.

This is very strange. I have lived my life by the academic calendar for about the last 25 years. I didn’t take time off between high school, college, and graduate school, so I was a perpetual student until I was 22 years old. After finishing my master’s degree, I worked in a high school for two years, and then moved straight on to working at a college. Sure, the jobs changed a bit (no more summers off!), but the general rhythm of my year did not. I always liked this aspect of working in education. Though any given day can be an unknown, there’s a very predictable pattern to the year. You know that November will be like this, March will be like that. Forget January 1, Labor Day is the beginning of my new year.

Not anymore. This Labor Day weekend is coming and going with no change in my (new) daily routine. No orientation for new students, no chaos of the start of the semester, no shock to the system after going from lazy summer to crazy fall. Oh sure, my routine has changed plenty in the last month. Life is both busier and not. But it is independent of the semester. No more life in 14-week blocks.

At least, not until they hit kindergarten.