First day of school

It took four days for me to feel that the first day of school really happened. Now that both of my classes have met, I have met with my undergrad honors student, and we have already confronted a problem in our faculty meeting, I feel that the school year has begun. The beginning is always full of hope--hope that I will always be very organized and never overlook anything, that I will think of all the most important things, that the students will feel very engaged with the material and bring a lot of energy to the class, that we will always understand each other, that everyone will learn from everything, and that it will feel shiny and new every day just because we love learning and sharing all of our new thoughts and knowledge. That would be so wonderful! But, humans that we are, it's just possible that we might fall short somewhere along the way. If that happens, I hope that we will assume the best and not the worst, give it our best shot, and keep going with good energy. I hope there will be some great moments, some new insights, lots of new music, and that we will remember that we shared all of this happily.