I’ve been out of school for a long time and for whatever reason, “Back To School” season–no matter how much fun and excitement advertisers try to graft on to it–always brings me down. It wasn’t that I didn’t dig school growing up, it was just that I always got hung up on whether or not I had made the most of the fleeting Summer months. I think that’s a pretty common side effect of the Winters here in the upper mid-west, spending five frozen months indoors will do that to a guy.

Thankfully that’s not true for the young members of Project Dimmel. They meet the start of each new school year with aplomb and composure that I could never summon. They get excited about new classes and new supplies and new opportunities and I’m happy for them. It’s just that I like having them around all Summer and this time of year is one long reminder that they’re growing up fast, destined to strike out on their own someday. I can’t keep them with me forever any more than I can hold on to the fading Summer.

If you were up early with your kids this morning, you felt it when you walked outside. It was gorgeous today, don’t get me wrong, but there was a sobering chill to the morning air. Perfect First Day Of School Weather actually, pleasant enough to fill you with hope, yet crisp enough to leave no doubt in your mind that change is coming. Didn’t phaze the kids one bit. They went on to have a great day at school which they breathlessly told me about in granular detail. It makes me think I should stop worrying and learn to love this time of year. I’ve set wonderful little things in motion, and while I do not control them, that’s not really my job. My job is simply to put the right spin on them before I loosen my grip and, like the Summer, watch ’em go go go.

They always come back, after all.