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Moving to September
Message from the Head of School
Todd and Lesley Nelson (L and R, standing) with their children Hilary, Spencer and Ariel (l to r), June 7, 2010 in Castine, Maine.
Photo credit: Rosemary Wyman.
We are packing. We are unpacking. Each of us has a box with our names on it. Perhaps it is the box of 2nd, 4th, 6th or 8th grade, into which we place the carefully sealed boxes of language arts and science and social studies. Don't forget the box of woodshop and art and bamboo forts and music! Recess and lunch are in there too. The box of meetings and conferences; conviviality, joy, consternation, frustration, and even heartache–but mostly triumph and fulfillment. In June, the schoolhouse began to fill with these real and imagined boxes of all sizes, the vessels for all we have experienced, learned, made, sung, acted, danced, run and cherished between last September and June, and they begin to pile up in anticipation of the Move to a new year, next September.
There are book boxes and china boxes and wardrobes–small boxes for a few heavy items, and bubble–wrap and tissue paper for the breakables; wardrobes for all those costumes that are put to use every day, in addition to Halloween. Sometimes they are disguises, sometimes just character or scene changes. Everything we need for the next place is being loaded for the move.
The new neighborhood, September 2010, is only just around the corner. While it's not far, all of these boxes must be carried home, or loaded into the car. Some go into storage, and some get immediately reopened in a new location–at your house, at the pool, at art camp, tennis court, grandma's house, tree houses, boats and lake shore idylls. Perhaps new things will be added in July and August? Good! The box of summer has a way of expanding.
New room? Same room? New teacher? Same teacher? It'll be different for each of us. But there are always new costumes…and always new boxes to fill. The new kids in this neighborhood might look familiar–even the same names as the old school!–but I guarantee they'll be different. We're all going to be new kids by September–it's just one of the laws of summer.
If this move is like all the prior ones we've experienced, September will mix new discoveries of old things, reunions with favorite toys, and perhaps a few insurance claims for broken glassware that the movers packed inconsiderately or that fell off the truck. The unpacking script might go like this: Now where are those math skills I put in an easy–to–find place? I know I put the comma rules in here somewhere…I just hope the box isn't under the box spring mattress! The Spanish vocabulary was in a big box with "Espanol" across the top in big letters. Where has it gone? Uh–oh: the science box is leaking. I wonder what I packed in there? Perhaps I should have double–sealed it? And the papiér maché mask and puppets I worked so hard on in art class are crumbled. No worries. It's time to make new ones…I'd choose different colors this time anyway. Creativity is the most precious cargo.
Our belongings are us. We are what we pack and unpack. For a while in June it feels as if we are living in two houses or in two years at once; departing and arriving at the same time; going to and from the same destination. Packing up the prior school house is inextricably bound to our expectation of unpacking in the new one, next year's room, particularly since so much of what we have packed was chosen with this new one in mind. We may even find that some of the things we most cherished have lost their value over the summer, during the move in July and August, and we're ready for entirely new, unanticipated treasures. It's one of the benefits of moving, of changing, of growing: finding that we can be both new and old in knowledge at the same time.
We're packing the house of friendship too–which is much harder to box up. It goes on the truck last. It wants to stay unpacked until the last minute, but even this most sacred belonging needs a little time away from school to rejuvenate. The new kids in this neighborhood might look familiar–even the same names as the old school!–but I guarantee they'll be different. We're all going to be new kids by September–it's just one of the laws of summer.
You know the forwarding address. See you at the new place.
Todd R. Nelson is the new Head of School.
