The papparazzi were always waiting to capture me outside my college apartment.

(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 36)

I’ve mentioned in this space before that this time of year is somewhat loaded with sense memory for me.

From my years as a student (back-to-school shopping) to my years as a teacher (back-to-school shopping in a different way…and setting up the classroom), this time of year always carries with it a sense of nostalgia.

But last week I made a trip to New York and a new realization about this time of year hit me.

Well, maybe it wasn’t a completely new realization.

But it was certainly a new take on an old realization.

On Sunday evening as I drove to New York I saw a lot of cars packed for college. Some with parents driving kids…some with kids driving themselves.

The big tell that they’re going to school is the loaded backseats…and the other give-away is, which is the point I’m making here I guess, it’s that time of year.

So that got me thinking about me going to school, and how it’s kind of crazy that my parents just took me to another city and left me there.

I did fine - actually, more than fine - it was probably the best thing I could have done, learning to get on in the world on my own. But I don’t know if I was ready for that drop-off…and I know it wasn’t easy for my parents.

That kid in the picture at the top of the post looks a lot more mature than I remember being back then. (That was probably in my third year of school…when I wasn’t crazy about posing for pictures and my mom clearly ambushed me with that picture, which I guess I’m glad about. That’s the infamous 864 Beacon along the Marathon route I’ve told you about for years.)

But seeing those kids driving to school also got me thinking about the next couple of years, when we’ll be experiencing that from the parents’ perspective.

I guess I’ll be anxious about it in some ways, but looking at my kids they seem so much more capable at their age than I ever was.

I guess part of me is a little sad that’s just around the corner…but I’m also excited for my kids to have that experience, however and wherever it develops for them.

Because they’re probably more ready for all of it than I was.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

It’s college football season again! I really love this time of year for all of the reasons - weather, football, playoff baseball. The fall is great. 10/10. No notes.

Notes

*The girls’ back-to-school routine really snuck up on me this week. Kind of a busy readjustment period.

*Saturday’s long run was 19 miles. Once again, I did pretty well with the run overall…I’ve been running more of these long runs than I have in previous training sessions. (As in, not taking as many walking breaks.) But it’s all very very slow running. We’ll see how that all ends up translating to race day.

*Just 5 more weeks until said race day. And we’re inching ever closer to my fundraising goal! Thanks to everyone who has contributed. If you haven’t yet, you can still do so at this link. (I’m proud to be running the Chicago Marathon for Ronald McDonald House Charities.)

*If you act fast you can watch a little Instagram Story of the Framingham streets I covered in yesterday’s run. (Those disappear after 24 hours so depending on when you see this you only have until this afternoon.)

*And of course you can be among the first to see whatever I post by following along at the social media links below.