If I had not retired,
Today would have been the first day of school.
Today I would have had the jittery joy of a new beginning.
I would have combed my shelves for just the right book to read.
I would have had new markers and notebooks to share.
I would have worked hard to learn new names and remember names of former students.
I would have dressed up and put on lipstick.
But today is not my first day of school, so I spent the day imagining it.
September, 2020 marks a shift in what school is and what it may become. I hope that school will open like a dahlia bloom with every petal having its place in the Fibonacci sequence. Each petal important to the shape, color, and size of what is possible.
It’s not my first day of school, and I miss it deeply. September beginnings are in my blood. This is my time to find out what the school of life has to teach me next. Perhaps it can be my first day of school, after all.
pelicansandprose 
I don’t doubt that this is the beginning of something new, whether you know what it is yet or not. Thank you for sharing this, Marilyn.
September has such an air about it. Both of my parents are retired teachers and they say the same thing every year, even years later, they imagine it too. Once a teacher, always a teacher.
There is so much possibility here. Like many new beginnings, this one comes with a bit of longing for what was, and also with an appreciation of all that is in store for you. Wishing you all the best in the most amazing class the world has to offer- life.