Why the First Day of School Feels Momentous
From adorably uncertain first steps to a dash of nostalgia: it’s all imbued with meaning.
“You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So… get on your way!”
~ Dr. Seuss
Ever since leaving school six years ago, I haven’t really thought about my experiences there. But this morning, my mom told me it was the first day of school, across the country:
“Imagine all those wide-eyed, adorable six-year-olds stepping into school for the first time. What a journey they are going on… just like you guys did,” she said, referencing my brother and I.
Her voice carried a kind of parental nostalgia I sense more and more often in parents of recently grown-up children: the “Oh how the times have changed” sentiment. It made me realize that the beginning of the school year is momentous — for kids and parents alike — yet we often overlook its meaning and neglect the sentiments it brings.
I think the first day of school — whether for a teenager or a first grader — is kind of romantic in nature. It’s a time of hope and doubt, excitement and frustration. It marks the end of a long summer of hanging out with friends and family, working odd jobs, and reading cheesy novels. Of going to the beach, attending summer camps, hiking in the woods.
When I think back to all my years in school, the first day always felt momentous. The anticipation began weeks in advance, when my parents would remind — or maybe warn us — of what was coming:
“Two more weeks of summer break! Enjoy it while you can,” they would say.
And then a week later:
“Go outside and play. A week from now you’ll be sitting in a classroom all day.”
Here in Romania, as in many Soviet-legacy countries, the first day of school is reserved for a commencement ceremony and a class gathering. There is no actual teaching, just hours and hours of speeches by school principals, politicians, and religious leaders, who try to, respectively, warn, inspire, and pray for the incoming students.
But we never listened to their unending flow of boring clichés. Despite being drowsy and uninterested, there was a kind of restlessness in all of us. An edgy murmur in the crowd. We were both fresh from summer and tired from waking up early. Genuinely happy to see our classmates and favorite teachers, yet dreading the awkward encounters with crushes and bullies.
There was a kind of life to the first day of school that we had not experienced for months. A lurking vibrancy that seemed incongruous with the idle gaiety of summer, when going to the pool, buying ice cream, and playing basketball for entire afternoons kept us in the bubble of our blissful, parallel reality. It’s how the buzz of Naples feels after spending time in the bygone inertia of the South Italian countryside: equally electrifying and distressing.
On the first day of school — as in Naples — everything takes on a larger-than-life character. It’s as if society is reminding you what modern life is, and how much work and struggle is in store for you. But even as an innocent child or as a dumb teenager, you know there’s no other way. “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows,” a fighter in a movie once said.
For first graders
For first graders, the first day of school is a leap into a monumental unknown that’s going to define much of their young lives. They are stepping into an institution about which they have heard and seen so much but really, know nothing about. Anxiously awaiting the experience, they nag at their parents’ hands and keep asking what school is like — showing the kind of childlike innocence that makes a parent’s heart melt:
“Who’s my teacher?”
“What if I hate math?”
“What if I don’t make any friends?”
For first graders, embarking on their educational journey on that late summer morning, stepping into a building big and strange, they are excited and overwhelmed and way in over their heads. They will need to figure out how to navigate an environment unlike anything they have encountered before. They’ll need to grow and adapt and master resilience. The triumphs and tribulations of school life will teach them the very essence of what it’s like to be human. It’s a hell of a journey.
For parents
Ask any parent, and they’ll tell you: the first day of school is a time of nostalgia:
“I can’t believe you’re in high school already! When did you grow up to be so big?” my mom would ask when I was 14, and we were driving to the first day of school.
The next year, it was all the same:
“I can’t believe you’re already a high school sophomore! You’re becoming a proper man,” she said.
“We’re so proud of you,” my dad would echo, and they would get emotional about just how quickly their kids have grown up.
To my knowledge, my dad attended the opening ceremony every year I was in school. No other parent does that. But he came because he felt the larger-than-life significance of the occasion. For him, seeing his kids go through new beginnings and new challenges, as they shaped their identities and futures, is what meant to be a parent. Witnessing his kids’ milestones made him feel part of our journey and our reality. It made him feel more connected to us and our defining moments.
The cyclical nature of the school year, just like the cyclical nature of life, shows not only the inevitable passing of time but also the wonderful meanings that families create throughout. Ask any parent who sees their child grow up year after year, from one grade to another, and they will tell you, with unbound nostalgia, just how profound the circle of life feels. For them, the first day of school is one of the most poignant reminders.
