A Grateful Heart: First day of school rituals

One back-to-school ritual is to visit my new classrooms. I wear entirely too
much black to work with chalkboards, but alas. (Pictured: My new digs in
Sequoia Hall at Sacramento State)
Backpacks. School supplies. Cute kid photos on Facebook. I can tell that many of my friends have cherished back-to-school rituals. For me? It's a good PB&J.

Yesterday as I drove to Sacramento State University for my first day of work as a part time faculty member, it dawned on me, PB&J in hand, that I almost always start off the Fall semester with a hankering for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

In fact, my comfort food craving is well documented as on my first day of school at Arizona State University four years ago, I got caught by a speed camera, mouth open, PB&J on final descent. Yes, my dear Mr. T got the photo at home in California and promptly pinned it to the fridge. No, I'm not posting that awful photo here.

A few hours after the sandwich revelation, I found myself marveling at another "first day" down, my 11th as an instructor, if you're keeping score. Another first day of jitters and introductions and shuffling of syllabi. Another first day of hope and enthusiasm. Another first day of doing the best job in the world.

Pretty cool!

Now, remind me of this rosy attitude come December when I'm climbing mountains of grading, will you??

xoxo,
shawna

P/S Guess what? I started another website dedicated to all things academia. When it gets fully polished, I'll write a proper introduction post. But in the mean time, feel free to sneak a peek and let me know what you think: http://drmalviniredden.com/

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