WSG 17 Back to School

wsg 17

Daughter Camille is in there….

I love back to school time, don’t you? It’s the real New Year’s to me. I make lists of things to do. Get new clothing and start putting away the summer duds. It gets nippier out. The natural color palette starts to change, gold and orange elbow in on pink and green. Back to school and September are about change: weather, intentions, schedule, motivation, social, wardrobe. It’s a chance to shake things up! 

While we are on the subject of shaking things up, I wanted to circle back to what the WSG Newsletter is about. It is not about making you feel bad about yourself that you didn’t find your life’s passion at age 8 and pursue it. It is about getting off of your fanny if you are sitting on it and doing something. Anything.

WSG Maven interviews are kind of like a women’s experience victory lap. My favorite part of the interview is hearing why they do what they do and invariably there is a ‘why.’ We all can have a ‘why’ and it’s up to us to pursue it, whatever it is. At the point on the timeline where we find ourselves, a lot is happening whether we like it or not. So might as well make the most of life’s waves and jump on our boogie boards (beachy Labor Day vision).

Unsettling waves like an empty house, for instance. All the kids have left for college or school and you’re freaking out that you can’t justify your existence (you’ll forget this feeling as soon as you’re busy enough not to focus on it). Or, you’ve been working the same job since your twenties and it has ended and you're 50. We start feeling badly about ourselves if we’re not busy. Plus, the mirror can be rough. The physical maintenance is constant (dentist, doctor, hair, body, face, PT). Then you read my newsletter and it feels like a poke in the eye because these Mavens are so damned motivated and clever and, and…..sob.  

Well, put down that turkey leg and let go of the remote. The purpose of this Newsletter is to introduce lots of different types of people and lifestyles and get you excited to carry on. Carpe Diem! If you can afford to volunteer there are many places like hospitals, libraries, churches, temples, schools, garden clubs, prisons, town councils that are just waiting for you! Who do you think runs all of these things?

If you have a job but also an empty house, take some courses at night in person with other people! Cooking, photography, drawing, it’s endless. You can start small, get a new cook book and try some new recipes or walk more, take the stairs. Set up a date night that is solid on your schedule with your significant other. If you’re married try looking at your relationship. You like this person why not go do some things with them? We loose sight of our closest relationships sometimes and how lovely to reinvigorate something that’s right there under your nose?

These smaller gestures have a wonderful effect on your sense of accomplishment. Be kind to yourself. Do the best you can with what you’ve got. You cannot ask for more. You’re good people. 

Back to the new clothing. Does anyone remember a fall when they got a super special new outfit for back to school? I do. I used to go with my grandmother to a little shop in Chestnut Hill, MA called The Sandpiper. Her rule was if I didn’t like it we didn’t have to buy it and if she didn’t like it we wouldn’t buy it. I’d get some wide wale corduroys and a corresponding sweater and blouse. Some docksiders or sneakers. Probably a mid calf, pleated wool skirt that I could wear with the sweater and blouse, too.  But in 1981, she bought me what I really wanted: purple Calvin Klein thin corduroy jeans and a pair of stacked espadrilles (by Jacques Cohen). I still remember wearing them the first day and sweating nearly to death. Does anyone remember sweating in their new fall clothing in the hot end of Summer temps? Good times. 

Tell me your fall wardrobe story!

My friend Carolyn was in Seventeen in the 80s

1980s tennis team from somewhere in the midwest

This week I want to interview several teachers in the spirit of back to school and ask them the following:

• Covid caused a complete halt to the way everything had been operating since WW2 (I think). What did that unscheduled, unplanned time, with no apparent end mean to you, how did you use it? Will it affect the way you teach?

• What did that extended time out of school allow you to do differently vis a vis your curriculum? 

• Some kids have found covid was productive and a relief as it took the social pressure off of them and the FOMO. In general, how was it as a teacher relating to students during covid? 

• What are you worried about?

• What are you feeling good about?

The problem is, I waited too long to reach out to people, sooooo. It’s not ready. I will do my back to school interview next week. If there are questions you’d like to have asked, please e-mail (womenssurvivalguide@gmail.com) me or write them in the comments section below. Why not?

Happy Labor Day, to all.

Yours,

Kim