First day back at school

We all know that feeling of the first week in September, as we sit at home reflecting on the amazing summer that is nearing the end.  Up until the age of about eighteen, two months ever year were guaranteed away from school.  They were designed to be the best two months of your life, every time.  When we were really little, we would (inevitably for the kids who grow up to be writers) roam around our homes, our own kingdom in which we could imagine any number of adventures.  There would be days out to the seaside, play dates, and tents made out of garden canes and freshly washed sheets whipped from the clothes line before my mum could say no.  Then, as we all got older and decided we had fallen out with our immature playdate friends, hanging out by the river with the cooler kids from high school.  Driving around on the back of the football captain's Vespa, and drinking beers too warm to taste good late in the evening and well past the parental curfew.  Or in my case sat at home wondering why it was that the cooler kids with whom I used to share play dates with didn't want to hang out anymore. 

And then it would arrive.  That first Monday or Tuesday of September when you went back to a new school year.  You would have your new bag and hope that it was cool enough not to get you ridiculed.  New pencil cases and sharpened pencils ready for action in lesson one of the new school year.  You had buttoned up your new blazer, socks pulled high.  That was the right way, right? But it was that first day, when you sit down in the new class with the new teacher at the desks that are kind of a bit big for you to be comfortable at and realise that your old buddies arn't in '8M' anymore.  You're on your own, and you don't know anybody.  We'll except for the kid who was always too loud and too scary looking at primary school, and you don't want to sit next to him even if that's the only desk left.  What the hell is he going to make of the regulatory black school shoes that when you look at them from above look like they are turning out the wrong way.  You know they were on the list, but why couldn't your mum just let you have the trendy Doc Martin's.  They were black too.  God I was a nerd.

So, September is the month of introductions.  Virtually everyday of September, I will be introducing you to a new kid amongst out class of writers.  Some of us have been at it a long time.  So long that they are bound to get class president. Books and books under their belt.  They could probably make head boy too.  You'll meet the class clown, the dreamer, the grafter, the bad boy, the pretty, untouchable girl.  The slot for the geek is taken, but further applicants are welcome.  So make sure you are stopping by everyday in September.  Come and meet the other kids.  You might just well make some new friends.