September, I'm Ready

In a week, we will welcome September. Or thereabouts. I can't be bothered to check the calendar. But... you know...

I am ready for September. I am ready for a full work schedule. I am ready to hear all about my nieces' school schedules. I am ready to start unpacking my fall sweaters, even if it is still premature in September. I am ready for my teacher friends to be in the swing of their work schedules so we can reconnect and have more to complain about. That is us. We are women who have everything to be grateful for but love to hear ourselves moan. It brings a warm sense of camaraderie. We exaggerate our troubles so we can reassure one another of our wonderfulness. That is us. We are women.

To me, each month has a feeling associated with it. When I hear August, for example, I immediately think "the end of summer, the winding down of days over 100 fahrenheit, the last of long days to dig my toes into the sands of the beaches".

When I hear "September", it brings a solemness to it that is hard to explain. Remember the days when everyone started school in September? Right after Labor Day. Now so many schools start in early to mid August. Times have changed. But to me, I will always associate Labor Day weekend as that final weekend before school begins. That Monday holiday where I could not fall asleep. That Monday night when I had my "new outfit" all chosen and laid out. That seems like moons and lifetimes ago now.

September marks the anniversary of when I started my job at Mimi's. The job I started in San Diego that saw me through 6 years of service and a handful of lifelong friends. This is the job that took me to Overland Park, Kansas- a place I would have never likely visited had it not been for my training days at Mimis. It's the job where I met boyfriends and gossiped with co-workers about these sometimes brief, sometimes long relationships. We chatted about school. We ate delicious Mimi's food all while complaining about some of our regular customers that drove us crazy. This was the month that started me in this serving job that paid for trips around the world. Trips to see my handsome boyfriend, who became my wonderful fiance, who became my loving husband. This was September.

September is the month in which I lost my dad. It marks the saddest days of my life. That intense, indescribable feeling of losing your breath every morning when you wake up and remember your loss. September was the month that my heart was broken in a way that it had never been before. That was September.

September marks some of my first days on the campus of San Diego State where I knew few people. September reminds me of the start of many classes at State, and the classes I would later come to teach myself. The days of teaching at Rio Hondo College, Santa Ana College, and Pitzer University. The sights and sounds of nervous students. The tension caused by busy parking lots. The look of students checking their campus maps and looking in all the wrong directions. This, to me, is September.

September is our friendiversary. The friendiversary of the 6 of us. Including myself, in no particular order, it is Cristina, Kristin, Jeanette, Shelby and Sueann. It is the start of us having fun. It is the start of us planning birthdays, holidays and opportunities to celebrate our friendship and being fabulous women. This is us. This is what September means to me.