Back to School Blues

If you’re raising children now, or if you’ve ever raised kids, you know about these Back to School Blues. They usually start to hit about mid-August every single year. The realization of summer break ending causes somewhat of a panic, spurring a race to get as much fun crammed into the last two weeks of freedom before it’s time to once again walk those halls. For some kids this is torture (or at least they make it seem that way). For some kids they can’t wait to go back. For most adults, they’re praying for that day to come.

Don’t get me wrong, I love each of my four children immensely, and I’d do anything for them. But there’s something about the first day of school that brings a collective and restful “sigh” heard around the world from parents who just got done packing lunches, breaking up sibling fights, telling a child for the third time that they are NOT wearing that to school (not the first day of school anyway – usually standards start to drop after that, and a button down shirt with pajama pants and Crocs feels somehow acceptable before we’ve had our second cup of coffee).

We have amazing teachers in the Cove, in all the districts we have in our great community. I believe they are under appreciated for the hard work they do to take care of our young ones and help educated them and guide them on the path to life. As amazing as they are, I’m sure there’s still a sense of the Back to School Blues for them as well. Being a teacher is an amazingly rewarding job – but I’m sure they’ll tell you it comes with its share of stresses too.

By now you’re probably asking, “what’s the point?” I’m so glad you did that because I was about to ramble on some more about school supplies, and catching the wrong bus, and picture day. Parents – did you ever forget about picture day, and were “surprised” by what your child wore that day? Yeah, we’ve been there.

Ok, so here’s the point. I can tell you from my personal experience, whether we all have the blues, butterflies, or every emotion and feeling in between when it’s time to go back, once we get past the first day (or two…or three…or like a week or two) we all settle into a routine and start to function semi-normally (and realize it’s not that bad after all). Once we pass that hurdle, everything starts to feel… ok.

Isn’t this true of most things in life? The things we have to do, but fear doing them? Some of these things could seem mundane, and some of them can be so overwhelming they induce a special kind of panic. We’ve all been there.

Having that difficult conversation, letting go of a bad relationship, moving on from one job to the next. Sometimes it’s just facing the day. Trust me, I’ve experienced some really bad days, where my morning consists of me talking to God and my cup of coffee, wondering if one of them would be so kind as to not make me be an adult today.

We’ve all faced these things in one form or another, one extreme or another. And I won’t get into this right here, but let me just say that what may seem extreme and overwhelming to me might not seem that way to you and vice versa – be careful to judge someone based on what they are going through in this season of life.

But here’s some simple, yet solid truth that I hope will help someone who is facing these blues today. No matter what you have to face, focus on getting through it one step at a time. Replace the lies with truth. Lies will tell you that you can’t make it through today. The truth is that you can, and once you get through that first day, that first step, you just may find that it’s not that bad after all.

And here’s the most solid truth I can leave you with. Rely on God. Count on Him to take your burden and walk through this life with you. When you give your life to Him, the Bible says that He will never leave you or forsake you (Deuteronomy 3:16) and I can tell you from experience, that’s a promise you can take to the bank (you can take it with you to school, too).