The school year’s about to start. Today is a Sunday before many schools begin session.. others happen next week…
The change is here.
You can feel it.
Even if you’re not the one carrying a book bag and lunch box anymore, there’s something about this time of year that still gets into your bones. The air changes. That first crisp edge eventually replaces the heavy summer heat. Evenings come a little sooner. Somewhere in the distance, there’s the faint glow of Friday night lights.
It’s like the world is quietly telling you it is again time to turn the page.
Starting school was always a rite of passage. New shoes, fresh notebooks, the awkward excitement of seeing who ended up in your classes. Adults now join in by posting their kids’ schedules and seeing who what other kids share the same homeroom as theirs.. and the photos on the first day blanket the socials…
Fall itself is wrapped itself around it all—cool mornings, leaves crunching under shoes, the smell of sharpened pencils and pumpkin spice everywhere.. memories come back so easily you can almost hear the hum of the fluorescent lights in the hallway of your own school..
Nostalgia..
It’s warm. It’s familiar. But like I’ve said before—it’s a little like pulling a blanket out of the dryer only to realize it’s still damp. Comforting for only a moment and then the warmth vanishes and you are left with something very different than how it started..
Our minds edit the past into highlight reels, cutting out the awkward moments, the bad grades, the stress. We remember the best parts and forget that life was never as flawless as the memory makes it seem.
Sometimes, we try to go back—not physically, but mentally. Mental “teleporting.” Close your eyes. Block out the present. Let yourself drift to a hallway you once walked, a mall you once wandered, a crisp fall night under the stadium lights. Picture every detail—the way the air smelled, the sound of shoes on the floor, the weight of the backpack on your shoulder. If you let yourself sink into it, your brain can almost convince you you’re there again.
I guess it can be healing for a bit..
But here’s the danger—stay there too long, and the present starts to fade. You risk getting so wrapped up in what was that you stop paying attention to what is. Nostalgia can be a bridge, but it can also be a trap and a curse into oblivion..
So use it wisely.
Take the trip in your mind when you need to remember who you are, or to feel the spark of a time when things seemed simpler. But then—open your eyes. Look around. Notice the smell of this fall’s air, the sound of these streets, the people who are part of this chapter.
Because here’s the truth—one day, right now will be the moment you’re trying to teleport back to.
And when that day comes, you’ll wish you’d really been here for it.
