inFormAL Lessons

I will not be starting school again this fall. For the moment, formal education will not dominate my life. This has not been the case for the past twenty years of my life.

For the past twenty years of my life, September has always been my New Year. September has afforded an opportunity to start fresh and new - New classes, new classmates, new projects, new books, new clothes, new routines, and a chance to turn over a new leaf. (A leaf that autumn supplies in abundance as the foiliage turns golden and falls to the ground preparing for winter.) This year, for the first time in a long time, there will be no new classes or classmates, no new projects or routines, to offer a symbolic New Year to inspire turning over a new leaf. Because the fall inevitably comes leading the way for winter to make it's cold appearance before the warmth of spring arrives, renewal is never a new part of living. So without the symbolism offered by new 'news' of a new school year, I, again, aim to turn over a new (but old and dying) autumn leaf.

Declaration of Autumn Leaves
1) Leave the past behind: Do not forget the past - but do not let the shame, pain, and anger of former follies haunt your presence. Learn the lessons your mistakes can teach you, but leave the past in the past and move toward a positive future.
2) Leave the bad and the ugly behind: Not everyone will love you. Not everyone will like you. Those who have decided they share no love for you are not needed or wanted. Leave them behind; They have already left you.
3) Leave space to grow into the man you want to be: Though you are no longer a school child and have found yourself facing the responsibility and circumstances of adulthood, do not forget that, unlike the autumn leaves that have expired and fallen from the trees, you still can grow. Grow from the past into the future.
4) Leave space for Hopes and Dreams: Do not let former failures kill your hopes and dreams for the future. Let those hopes and dreams live and soar as the leaves fall and die to prepare for the cold of winter.

This fall, like Alice in Wonderland as she fell down the Rabbit Hole, I will receive an informal education. No symbolic newness for the renewal offered by this New Year. This New Year is a new New Year - one that accompanies the fall because I have decided for renewal.

I have decided to Declare upon the Autumn Leaves.

New, fresh, and beautiful things can come from the dying leaves of autumn.