The First Day of School

From the big lights of the East Coast to the Pacific villages of the West, from the lakes of Minnesota down to the swamps of Louisiana, everywhere around the country, there is a universal axiom that holds true for every student, whether a fledgling first-grader or a third-year law student:

"The two best days of the school are the last day of school and the first day of school."
----- Robert Yan, future renowned philosopher.

So the first part is quite obvious: after 9 months of writing, memorizing, studying, listening, and other forms of torture, students look forward to the last day of school like no other, knowing that it signifies as well the beginning of summer, the time of no homework, no tests, and all play. It's a great feeling; I've had the pleasure of experiencing the last day of school 17 times in my life, and it never gets old.

But the first day of school might be a bit paradoxical, as it goes against the intuition of the last, in that the first day of school signifies the END of good times and the BEGINNING of the hellacious torture that is school. And for that reason the first day of school will always rank second to the last day of school, the last day of school maintaining its status as the main course to the appetizer that is the first day.

So why is the first day of school still viewed with some favor? It could be an interesting case study for some psychologist or child studies expert somewhere ( and please, if there are any members of those prestigious professions who read this blog, please respond in the comments). I think the answer has a lot to do with the fact that students spend SO much time in school, especially in the early grades of elementary, middle school, and high school (probably not so much in college, where skipping class and choice of schedule reduces the amount of time actually in the classroom), that school is a kind of second home for students. It's where they learn a good deal of what they need to learn for the rest of the their lives; it's where their friends and peers are; it's where they have some of their best experiences and some of their worst experiences; it's where they live their daily lives. And what happens when you've been away from home for a long time? You begin to miss it. Not only do you miss your friends (and maybe your teacher), you miss being in that environment, of feeling comfortable sitting in a classroom or on the P.E. court. Your body misses going through the daily grind like that.

Also, the first day of school brings a sense of excitement, of starting another year fresh. For students, the beginning of any year does not begin on January 1st, or (maybe for Chinese people) Chinese New Year sometime in February/March. The first day of the year is the first day of school, where you know you will be completeing __th grade this year. You will have new classrooms, a new locker, new P.E. clothes, new teachers, new classmates, new textbooks (ah the fresh smell of new textbooks), new clothes, new folders, new freshly sharpened pencils. So you get the point, everything is new. Nothing is boring yet; the new teacher speaks in a refreshing tone, even though in the back of your mind you know that by the end of May that voice will be one of the most grating sounds of all time. You have a chance at talking to new people, joining a new social clique, establish a new social identity for yourself. This is very different than what happens in the dog days of summer. As much as summer is fun but predictable, school is tough but unpredictable, at least on the first day. Sure, that feeling will wear off soon, in a month, a week, maybe even as soon as the second day of school, but for that one day, it's a pretty good feeling.

I just had my 18th first day of school, and I gotta say, it was pretty much as I described it. Going back to USC, I reconnected with Tommy Trojan, checked out the new Campus Center, walked down Trousdale Parkway, and saw how exorbitant the fees were for new textbooks at the University Bookstore (thank god I'm a 3L this year and don't have to buy many books). I went back to the law school, revisited with classmates, went to my new classes, and actually was fully at attention in ALL my classes.

I think the Robert Yan axiom works. But let's see how long the whole freshness thing lasts. I'm gonna need some extra motivation to get me through my last and final year of law school, and probably of school EVER.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan