Frantic and awkward chatter permeates the halls as friends who haven’t seen each other in three months begin to catch up. Students rustle through their backpacks and pull schedules out of their pockets as the clock strikes 8:10am, and the school year officially commences.

The first day is a flurry of introductions and confusion, enthusiasm, boredom, curiosity, and fear all running high. But such is merely par for the course as 900-odd students experience the first day of school.

Having attended Parker since Junior Kindergarten, the first day of this school year will be my 12th year at 330 W. Webster. While my time at Parker is by no means reaching its end shortly, 2019 isn’t terribly far away either. As my Parker career reaches the home stretch, I’ve started to reflect on how I’ve changed over the years, measuring myself against benchmarks of Parker life.

I thought it might be nice to consider how first days transform over the years.

As with most things, my first day experience began with a humble innocence. Although I can’t recall my first days of JK or SK, my first day of 1st grade is one of the most vivid memories from my early life. Really, it was all one might expect out of a six-year-old child.

The happiness and genuine curiosity was bursting at the seams when I stepped in to meet Ms. Greenberg, Greenie to her students, for the first time. I’ve since forgotten the specifics–what we spoke about and the work we completed eludes me–but the mental images of the classroom and emotion remain sharp to this day.

Over the years, first days slowly began to shed their mystique, gradually becoming a patch on the school’s elaborate quilt, rather than a special event. As I grew older, and school became a greater academic commitment, the first day of school evolved into a symbol of dread and stress, representing a cold dive back into reality after months of summer’s warmth.

As breathless anticipation and wonder gave way to heightened responsibility and summer reading, my dislike and mistrust of first days approached almost comical heights. But that all changed last year, my eleventh year at Parker.

Perhaps it was the freshman retreat that took place a week before school. Maybe it was the end of my first year of high school pre-season soccer. More than likely it was just the right combination of maturity and circumstance.

Whatever the cause, I was eagerly looking forward to my first day of high school, and that day, my first day last year, was one for the early-September scrapbooks. Rather than all the apprehension and discombobulation for which TV had prepared me, my first day (and the days that followed) were just fascinating.

I wasn’t thrilled about the newfound workload or the difficult move from eighth grade to freshman year, but despite a few rough patches, I had a tremendous start. The positivity that I eventually developed delivered me through the first few weeks before I found myself settling into a routine.

Looking back, I realize how much I’d been missing leading up to last year. Although there are plenty who despise the beginning of school with a passion, I feel that last year, however inadvertently, I defied the cliché. By coming in with a sincerely sunny outlook, I wound up avoiding the traditional grind.

Although you, reading this article right now, may not be able to retroactively adjust your attitude coming into today, I encourage you to do so for the coming days–because after September 2 comes September 3, and after September 3 comes September 4…  You’ll have to get through the days no matter how you slice it, so why not do so with a smile?