Sprinkled with a Dash of Melancholoy

/ Jodi

Morning Ride Home Fog 1

It’s that time of year…
that bittersweet time.

You can just feel it…
There’s a  nip in the air.

You can hear it…
The crickets croon.

You can smell it…
Drying leaves and withering grass.

There’s that knot in the stomach…
not sure if it’s nervous or excited.

It’s an ending…
but it is also a beginning.

Carefree days are left behind…
Structured schedules begin.

It’s brand new shoes…
and choosing just the right first day outfit.

It’s shiny new binders…
and backpacks with lots of compartments.

It’s one-subject and three-subject and five-subject
multi-colored spiral notebooks.

It’s freshly sharpened pencils…
and pens in red, and blue and black.

It’s fresh new crayons and assorted colored pencils…
and highlighters in neon shades of yellow and pink and green.

It’s the anticipation of seeing old friends
and the hope of meeting new ones.

It’s new teachers, new subjects, new classrooms…
It’s squeaky clean blackboards with fresh sticks of chalk.

It’s time to secretly pass notes
with important messages

like “Do you like me? Yes or No
Circle One”

It’s waiting with the neighbors at the bus stop
and sharing seats times three.

And then growing old enough
to be too cool for the bus.

It’s apples for teachers
and pictures with bus drivers.

It’s back to school time –
Can you feel it in the air?

And even though it’s been
quite a few years

since I sent my boys off
with ambivalent feelings of sadness and pride

and even more since it was me as that little girl
with butterflies of anticipation, fear, and excitement

I still get that feeling
this time of year.

Sweet joyful memories…
sprinkled with a dash of melancholy.

I can’t be the only one
that feels this way.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

 

Daily Prompt:  Learning

59 thoughts on “Sprinkled with a Dash of Melancholoy”

    • I’m glad you understand. It is such a funny feeling I always get this time of year. Always made me think I disliked Fall because I got this “feeling” when Fall is one of the most beautiful, glorious times of year. Yes – the oppressive heat and humidity will not be missed by me either!

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  5. Back-to-school days still fill me with excitement! I just love new beginnings! After thirty-five happy years of teaching, I just love to visit my school and help other teachers get ready for the new school year. Love your poem filled to the brim with heartwarming memories, Jodi! ♡

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      • Big hugs, Jodi! Becoming a teacher was my dream-come-true. When I was in second grade, I decided to become a teacher. Imagine my joy of seeing the world ‘through the eyes of my second graders’ for so many years! So many students still keep in touch. They will always be ‘my kids.’ We are honored to be invited to college graduations and now weddings of former first and second grade students. Several have gone on to become teachers! It’s a complete ‘circle of love.’ I am so very blessed!! ♡

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  6. You have captured the best of my school memories…….I always felt that this time of the year better reflected the notion of New Years…..fresh new starts…….you lucky girl you get to celebrate many new starts the coming 365 days…..😘😘😚😘😘😘😚

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    • As a teacher – you must have had an even stronger sense of connection to this time of year. Today is such a gloriously beautiful day – yet the sounds and the feeling prevails. It is not sad. It is not exceptionally happy – it is just that feeling. I am choosing to embrace it! 🙂 And oh yes – the exciting firsts that we are preparing for are almost more than my joy can bear! 🙂 ❤ Love you!!! xo

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  11. Very nice Jodi, it certainly has been quite a bit of time since my sons or I have started that first day of school. The next generation – my grandson started first grade yesterday! Happy Tuesday my friend. 🙂

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  12. I do! my girls have been out of school for at least 12 years and I still get that bit of melancholy. I read your poem and it is beautiful….you wonder why I wrote “read you poem” well, that is a miracle for me. I don’t read poems because I am too impatient. But….for some reason your poems hit the spot that speaks to me, I get impatient because most poems try to hard to sound poetic or they ramble. Yours always seem to make an impact, convey deep sentiments and that keeps my attention. So, when I see one of your poems, I get ready! hehe….Love the way you express yourself….in fact I was thinking of myself as a young girl going back to school. Love, love your poem. I will now have to take a cruise through your poems and read them bit by bit. I think that I have been missing out because I have read only one or two of them before because of my “poem phobia”. lol this is long…sorry. lol Oh, your photo was perfect for your poem.

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  13. This was perfect for me to read today. My granddaughter starts kindergarten tomorrow. My daughter is having all the normal anxiety that a mother experiences when a child goes to elementary school. Beautifully written.

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    • Hello Sharon! How wonderful to hear from you and glad this had meaning for you today. I think of you always and am holding you in my heart. What an exciting, special, nervous time this is for your daughter. Oh I can so bring it back – can’t you? Your granddaughter, on the other hand, is probably so excited. I imagine there will be some tears tomorrow – Momma tears – that well in my eyes just recalling. Hugs my friend!!!

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  16. I absolutely LOVED the first day of school when I was a child! My daughter is now in the teenage “GAWD I hate going back to school” stage. And yes, they text now instead of paper notes. They text constantly. They even text each other when sitting next to each other in a car, lol. I am not ready for summer to end, I just love summer and ours has been too short since it got a late start this year.

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  17. My niece is leaving for college this week as a Freshman. I’m so excited for her! 😊 Your poem is wonderful Jodi! It brings back such sweet memories of starting school and all the “new” changes it brings. Hugs! 💕😍

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  20. fascinating Jodi! how in that one photo, you caught the magic moment in time that the Seasons tell us, they are ‘changing now’……. it is something we can feel in the air and sense. How incredible to have conveyed it in your photo! awesome. (Great Post!)
    plus….. dang, thats a LOT of grass To MOW!!! 🙂

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  21. You absolutely nailed this one! That’s exactly what it felt like as a child to go back to school, as a mom to watch my kids go back to school, and now as an empty-nester for whom this time of year shouldn’t represent any kind of change at all, and yet I still have the feeling you described! You are a very good writer, do you know that?

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  22. Beautiful description of human emotions. Melancholy is a very complex human emotion, but it’s hard to pen down and you did it so magnificently. It broke my heart. Please write more. 🙂

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