Back to School, Again

Every fall, there’s a shift.

New notebooks, sharpened pencils, packed lunches. Even if you’re not the one going back to school, the rhythm of the season is everywhere.

For some, it’s kids starting a new grade. For others, it’s stepping into classrooms again as an adult. Either way, the season carries a certain weight full of hope, nerves, sometimes exhaustion, and sometimes all three at once.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

I am of course one of the more seasoned of my classmates, but there are people of all backgrounds and life experience levels. 

What I learned quickly is that my MFA program is a lot like my day job: What I’m writing isn’t only about credits and exams. It’s about repetition, practice, the small act of returning to the task when you’re tired and overwhelmed. That part doesn’t belong to kids or adults, it belongs to anyone who chooses to keep learning.

The Lessons Outside the Classroom

This year feels heavy already. 

2025 hasn’t exactly been a quiet one, inside or outside of my home sanctuary. But if school teaches anything, it’s that growth rarely happens in calm conditions. It happens in the middle of the noise.

Life doesn’t pause so you can focus.

 The bills still come. Families still need attention. Work doesn’t slow down. And yet, there’s something valuable about carving out the space anyway. Even when the calendar is full, there’s a statement in opening a book or sitting down to write. 

What Stays With Me

Going back to school also taught me how humbling it can feel to start again. To sit in a room where you don’t have all the answers. To realize that the people around you might be smarter, faster, and more fluent in the program… but, you still bring your own kind of knowledge.

That awareness, uncomfortable as it is, ends up being one of the lessons that matters most. You don’t have to arrive with every skill polished. You just have to be willing to stay the course, to keep showing up even when the balance feels off.

Over time, that persistence builds into something. Not a perfect transcript or a flawless performance, but a steadiness. The kind you can and should carry into other parts of life.

Your Turn

So tell me, how’s school this year? Are you or your kids or your loved ones starting fresh? 

What’s different, what’s familiar, what’s harder than you expected?

Scroll down and comment, I’d love to hear!