Members of the Mercersburg men's cross country team gather at the Mercersburg Invitational for a quick snapshot.
September 1, 2007 10:00 PM
A New School Year is the Eden in Us
With new purchases of equipment, books, clothes etc., the start of a new school year brings a feeling of a holiday about it. Seeing faces we have not seen all summer and our old friends is equally rewarding. What stands out most significantly, however, must be the feeling that we have a clean slate--a fresh start. We can leave our old mistakes behind us, and we have a new year to try new things out and work out the difficulties that stand in the way of our dreams with new energy. We can leave the fatigue and failure of our old self behind, and bring forward a new self that promises to be better yet.
There is something cyclycially mythic and magic about it: A new school year is the Eden in us, where we can recapture the greater ideal of who we propose to be. It is yet unblemished by the arbitrary betrayals and inconsiderations, the doubts and the disrepect the world can muster in force against us. Sure, there will be difficulties, but they are far beyond the vision of the bright and wonderful year we have in view, and it makes no sense to let anyone dim that view at the outset. If only we could sustain our excitement, the optimism we now feel.
I remember August Wilson saying of his success that he had to believe in himself more than all the world doubted him, believe in himself so much that that belief would surmount all the doubt in him the world could mount against him. It is a powerful but difficult formula to balance. It is at the beginning of the year we feel so much like August Wilson, that the world cannot turn us out. It is significantly vital that we cultivate the self-reliant sense of belief that may stem from a time like now when we really do feel optimistic. For when we do, we are perched for success.
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Posted by Matthew Kearney at September 1, 2007 10:00 PM
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