The School Year Cycle

Let me tell you about the the school year. I have been through 13 years of public school, 4 years of university, and two decades of post-grad work (give or take a decade).


There is a universal cycle that characterizes every school year. Small tweaks my take place due to locale, ethos and socio-economic circumstances. But, for the most part, the SYC (school year cycle) is universal. There are four very neat categories. This holds true all the way from jr. high to university, all the way here to Oxford:

a. The Darwinian Fashion Show: The beginning of the year is a time of optimism. Everything is new--new people, new teachers, new schools, new clothes. Autumn is a time to begin fresh: New friendships can be made, old enemies can be forgotten; there are new people to meet, and most importantly, the chance to change ones place on the social ladder. Here is how it works:

First two months of the year is spent showing off the new clothes, haircuts and shoes that all our mommies bought us at the end of summer sale. You put your clothes out for the first day of school, maybe even the first week. It is time to show everyone something new. Those months are filled with a ferocious clamoring for the highest place possible on the social ladder. Strategic alliances must be made with the right allies, conversations had on the jungle gym or over coffee with the right people, jokes cracked at the right time, and the right out outfits to impress the right people. This is crucial: it very well could set one's place for the entire year.

b. By mid-November we have reached the Melancholy Winter--a sense of fragile calm has been reached. The social contract has been tentatively set, clans have divided and formed, and an idea of the order of the social food chain has been revealed. Now for the fun to begin. Crushes can begin to form. I am not talking about the random back-to-school-hookup that many fall prey to, which is most times a short lived mistake that will be regretted later. No, I am talking about a crush across the rungs of the social ladder--identifying someone in your category, in the right tribe, with a similar place within the triangle of popularity. Due to changing colors, falling leaves, cold nights, it is inevitable that the melancholy longing for companionship is always formed by Christmas.

c. Dreamy Twitterpation: By Spring, the sun begins to shine unleashing a Winter's worth of pent up hormones. With the gradual passing of Winter comes the explosion of twitterpation. The lines are drawn, the sights set--and by Valentines there is a pair everywhere you look. This is the time of birds singing, eternal giddiness and the illusion that the hormonal soup which provides such a giddy rush of smiles and hand holding will last forever.

d. By Spring vacation the Endless Fatigue sets in signaling that the dream has passed. No doubt there has been scandal--cheating boyfriends, random fights, and an overall tiredness of the daily routine of the school year. The freshness that once dawned in Autumn now turns to fatigue as one wears the same clothes and looks at the same people everyday. The significant other that was once the definition of desire is now old and tired and unbearable and annoying. Friendships explode, relationships crumble, fisticuffs at lunchtime is given and a feeling of hopelessness sets in as summer seems unreachable. This is the war of attrition--it isn't always pretty, but it must be done.

Finally, summer. Freedom. Time. Joy. Happiness.

And three weeks in, boredom, TV, old movies, and sweat.

I love being alive.

Keep it real,