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Dear Savvy Reader,

I have renounced Labor Day. It used to be an important demarcation point in my life, but now it isn't. So I took a long hard look at my psyche to figure out the origins of this turnabout. I had a conversation with myself that went something like this.

Me: When did you like Labor Day

Myself: For most of my life, actually

Me: What happened to change this?

Myself: I stopped being in school.

Me: What was it about school that made you embrace Labor Day?

Myself now launches into an almost rhapsodic dissertation about the smells of freshly scrubbed and shined schools after Labor Day, about shopping for new clothes, sports equipment, pens, pencils and notebooks and about the promise of change, excitement, newness and challenge. These vivid memories made me long for my student and teaching days when Labor Day set the stage for new waters to be navigated and charted mentally, emotionally, physically and socially.

I then had to determine why Labor Day no longer held its allure to the extent that I now renounced it. I recently retired from academia and am exploring new areas of interest. I no longer have Labor Day as a demarcation point in my life that I did when I was a student and professor bound by institutional starting and stopping dates. I create my own schedule and have the freedom to follow my passions without constraints. However, in doing this, I am no longer part of a larger group energy and focus that occurs at the beginning of a new school year.

Labor Day also augurs the official end of summer, my most favorite time of year. It saddens me that the warmth, ease, freedom of movement and comfort of the season is coming to an end. I dread the cold and dreariness of the winter months that lie ahead.

Now that I have renounced Labor Day, I need to have another conversation with myself to explore how I can find comfort and peace with the three quarters of the year that isn't summer. Labor Day always signified new beginnings. I am no longer bound by this demarcation point. I can start something new whenever I want. It's really quite liberating.

Here's to starting anew,

Myrna

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