Jessica
As a break from my work and a treat to myself, I spent 30 minutes today doing something that I’ve done almost every August since I was 12.
I grabbed a pile of three-ring binders, a dozen sets of tab dividers and prepared myself for the school year. I made a list of all the academic committees and year-long groups that I serve on, compiled their various meeting dates, and began making labels. I carefully printed meeting dates on the white perforated strips and slid them into their correct, jellybean colored tab. I used a label-maker to permanently adhere the committee name to the proper binder. Then, I rearranged my work bookshelves, so that I could line them up together, weekly committees on the left, monthly committees on the right and ad-hoc work groups in the middle.
There is something that feels so correct, so soothing about organizing my binders in late summer. Some people associate August with swimming parties and state fairs, but I always think of starting my binders for the year. It’s such a contrast to the rest of my August.
At the beginning of the school year, I feel like I could this year, finally, stay organized. I can maintain my beautifully labeled binders, sliding the agendas and supporting documents into the correct section after each meeting. In reality, I know that by November, my desk will be a jumble of papers needing to be organized and post-it notes reminding me to Do Important Things. By February, I may have time to retreat to my email folders and reprint all of the now-discarded meeting materials, just so they can be filed in their binders. By May, I’ll have to write reports on the committees I chair or support, and I’ll flip through my binders and handwritten notes to jog my memory.
This is the rhythm of my year. I truly dread August because I spend so much time rushing and preparing for the school year to open. I count enrollment, frantically schedule rooms for meetings, try to imagine the special events for the following nine months. I never plan enough, because I always run out of meeting rooms around November and forget to advertise events in January. Each year, I think I’ll be able to plan well enough and I always end up feeling behind.
I just have to remind myself that summer will end, school will start (whether I’m ready or not), and I’ll be able to breathe around mid-September.
Three weeks to go.
