New BEGINNINGS

It’s the start of a new school year. Same old, same old? Never! Each year brings new students, new colleagues, new material, new relationships, and new experiences. How can we embrace the “old” to search for new meaning and personal and professional growth? I have been teaching full-time for 15 years, part-time for an additional five, and it never gets old. There is a parallel to being a psychotherapist (30 years). Although these are not new experiences, there is a richness in each new academic year, each new client, and each long-term client. Although clients may repeat their stories (it’s a part of the healing), there is a new version or piece of learning in every single rendition. So maybe we need to shift our lens when we think of the same old, same old. There’s a difference between routine (the seasons and the end of summer that marks the beginning of a school year) and routinization. It’s up to us to create new experiences and new perspectives even with what is familiar. It is THAT which not only produces growth, but keeps us motivated, interested, and productive. How can you find the newness in the familiar? Or how can you create it? 

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