The Happiest Season of All
It all started with a Staples TV ad in 1996.
Reminisce this. A father dances along a store aisle with a shopping cart filled with back-to-school supplies. Sulking children, a boy and a girl, follow closely behind. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” blasts merrily as the father throws post-its, pencil sharpeners and other essentials in the cart. The children aren’t impressed. It’s the Staples TV ad from 1996. Now that’s comedy, my nine-year-old self thought. I loved it back then and I still love it today.
Back-to-school, aka September, really is the most wonderful time of the year. I’ve always looked forward to September. It has a special energy. New beginnings. Possibility. Even transformation.
As a child born in late August, September not only meant a new age, but a new grade, new teachers, new classmates, probably new clothes and most definitely a new crush. In my teenage years, September felt like a chance to start fresh. All my mistakes could be erased. All my disappointments, forgotten. Year after year, I remember telling my friends that I was embarking on a “transformation journey.” A transformation into who or what, I didn’t know. I’m still not sure what I was referring to. Perhaps I was talking about my fashion choices, like that year I decided to become a skater girl and wear large wooden bead necklaces and red skate shoes from Top of the World. Or maybe it was the year I settled on being a linen-wearing hippie and let my hair dangle past my nipples like Alanis Morissette in the “Thank U” video clip. New year, new me, babe!
Nowadays, September looks much different than it did all those years ago. While it doesn’t mean new classmates or weird wooden jewelry, it still carries that “new beginnings” energy I deeply connect to. I view it as the perfect time of year to dive back into my work, especially after having my kid by my side the entire summer. We had good times, my love, but now you must go back to school and I have to figure out how to write a novel. Yes. This will be my new thing. I’ve never written a novel before. I don’t know how to write a novel. It’s the one thing I told myself I’d never do because it sounded too hard. My writing is grounded in things I know. Things that have happened to me. My process usually entails diving back into my memories and figuring out how to make them into a story. That memoir manuscript I worked on for years? It was about the time new motherhood shook me like the Kardashians shake their take-out salads. My short film script? That time I had digestive issues on my way to my engagement party. This newsletter? All the times I became fixated with something, like my unibrow or the moth infestation in my house. Do I have what it takes to take fictional characters on an epic journey for what… I don’t know… sixty-thousand words? I think I do. I’ve been obsessed with an idea for the past year, might as well go for it. I just turned thirty-five and it’s time I left my comfort zone. I’m going to step outside of myself for a change and see what’s out there.
As I write these words, I realize I’m repeating my “transformation journey” pattern again. Oh well. I’m going to try out the novelist outfit (my usual sweater, jogging pants and sneakers) and see what happens. I’ll have new classmates too, because I won’t be writing this book alone. I’ll be working alongside my novel-writing peers at The Resort writing community1.
As I embark on this journey, I feel hopeful. I’ve been through the process of writing a book before, and I can say that it’s not always a hope-filled, joyous experience. It can be a frustrating experience. An exhausting experience. An experience that makes you question your sense of self (Who do you think you are? You think YOU can write a book? The audacity.). That’s okay. I know what to do. I’ll just pop my headphones in and listen to “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and remember why September, the month of new beginnings, possibility and transformation, is the happiest season of all.
Are you looking forward to anything this September or Fall season? What is your happiest season of all? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
If you’re looking for an online writing community for support, accountability, education and inspiration, I suggest you check out The Resort writing community. It’s a free virtual community open to anyone, anywhere.
Bonjour Michelle ! Merci de ton nouvel essai. Je l'ai lu à sa sortie la semaine dernière.
À ce moment là, j'avais vu l'image figée de deux enfants sans savoir qu'il s'agissait de la bande annonce de Staples, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!" que je viens tout juste d'écouter. Oh boy! C'est vraiment drôle ! Je ne la connaissais pas.
J'avoue qu'en voyant l'image figée des enfants, je pensais qu'il s'agissait d'une annonce d'un film d'horreur ! Pour ma part, la rentrée a tjrs été une source d'angoisse, pour ne pas dire d'anxiété. Je parle d'angoisse à la fois comme élève et à la fois comme enseignante. Je peux donc m'identifier aux enfants de la bande annonce ! Par ailleurs, j'essaie tjrs d'éviter le magasinage en grande surface avant la rentrée, justement à cause des décors d'école et d'automne, des gens qui courent partout, du bruit et ,du gros "hype" de la rentrée. Tout ceci est très contradictoire ! J'aime apprendre et j'aime les livres et, en plus, je pense en termes d'années scolaires, c'est-à-dire que mon calendrier personnel va du mois de septembre jusqu'à la fin juin ou encore à nouveau mois de septembre de l'année d'ensuite et non de janvier en janvier ! Go figure!!!
Au contraire de ma soeur qui avait hâte de retrouver ses amis, d'avoir des nouveaux vêtements et d'acheter tout le nécessaire scolaire, je regrettais de ne plus pouvoir me baigner aussi souvent dans les cours d'eau naturels, d'avoir moins de liberté et d'être moins maîtresse de mon temps. Il y avait aussi la crainte de nouveaux enseignants, de nouveaux groupes d'élèves, de nouvelles institutions, etc qui prenait le dessus et qui pesait plus lourdement dans la balance des angoisses vs les joies de la rentrée. À un moment donné au mois d'août, je ressentais comme des "bouffées" d'angoisse et même encore aujourd'hui, les rêves angoissants et les flashbacks incontrôlables par rapport à l'école reviennent dès que les premières feuilles des arbres changent de couleur et commencent à tomber. Quant à mon anniversaire de naissance qui est au début du mois de septembre, celui-ci coïncide avec la rentrée scolaire ! Impossible qu'on souligne ma fête sans obligatoirement avoir à franchir le seuil de la porte d'école !!
Excuse-moi Michelle ! I guess that it isn't the most wonderful time of the year for me, even though I think that September is a beautiful month and I love autumn!!
Eh bien, comme ton article "The Happiest Season of All" est tellement convaincant, cette année je vais essayer tant bien que mal de prendre des nouvelles résolutions et de me remettre à la peinture et à la poésie. I'm quoting you: "...and remember why September, the month of new beginnings, possibility and tranformation, is the happiest season of all"! (As a true Virgo, I'm really going to try and to do my best!! Ha! Ha!)
C'est à mon tour à présent de te citer un extrait d'une autre chanson de Noël en pensant à ta nouvelle aventure littéraire chère Michelle : "May your day be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white" (The classic "White Christmas" of course!)--May your "happiest season of all" be merry an bright and may all your Septembers be full of promise that is!!
After I read this essay, with a smile, I felt a fresh breeze. Hope, new begginings and transformation. 3 encouraging key words. Very contagious! 🥰😘😍