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Goodbye summer, hello school

7 min read

…Hard to believe that the summer is winding down, and that school will soon be back in session. I know it’s a cliché, but wow, where did the time go this summer? It only seems like yesterday that we were covering graduation and the Memorial Day ceremonies. Now, here we are, getting ready for fall festivals and “back to school” sales.

I vividly remember being a kid, and dreading those last few days of summer vacation, trying to enjoy those few precious hours of freedom, of riding bikes and playing all day, before the inevitable school year reared its ugly head. And I remember how much I hated, hated, HATED the first few weeks of school.

Having to get adjusted to a series of new schedules was the worst. I had to go to bed earlier, get up earlier, ride an ugly yellow bus, shuffle like a zombie from one class to the next, eat unpleasant cafeteria food, lug heavy books from room to room, and finally go home, only to have only enough time to eat dinner and do homework. Then repeat the next day. And the day after that. And so on. Ad nauseum. And it’s even worse in the wintertime, when the days are so short that it gets dark right after you get home from school. Ugh.

Okay, perhaps I’m getting a tad negative here. Let me put another spin on this subject in case there are any impressionable youth out there reading this: School is great! You need a good education to succeed in life, so do your best and be sure to hit those books! A teacher told me a long time ago that the harder you try in school now, the easier life will be later. That’s good advice. (Oh, if only I had taken that advice to heart when I was younger…)

So, we want to wish the very best for the hundreds of Greene County youths who will soon be walking into classrooms every morning at the five area school districts. We know and understand that the fall season means that the students’ schedules will soon become very, very hectic. Between sports, cheerleading, extracurricular activities, dances, after-school programs, plays and pageants, jobs, family life, and maybe even homework, the daily life of the student can be exciting, chaotic and sometimes even overwhelming.

For all of us young and old, there is pressure to succeed, and to be sure, that pressure can often become overwhelming, especially for students. There is a significant but delicate difference between “living a full life” and having too much on one’s plate. And all too often, these students burn the candle at both ends and are either pushed too hard or voluntarily push themselves too hard to pile up their plates, until the plates inevitably crash at their feet.

We wish that all of our local students strive for excellence in school to benefit their futures, but we hope that they are still able to enjoy their youth while they are still young, and that their parents and guardians do their best to encourage them to succeed without crushing their spirits, crashing their plates, and causing their candles to burn out.

To all students, we simply say this: Welcome back to school, have a great year, study hard, do the best you can, and please be careful. And for heaven’s sake, be nice to your teachers, for they are going to be just as busy as you this coming school year…

…Oh, and speaking of schools: It’s time for our annual plea to the superintendents, teachers and parents in all five school districts. When your youths are doing good things in school and you feel they deserve some recognition, LET THE MESSENGER KNOW.

Whether it’s academic achievements, theater productions, extracurricular honors, class projects, anything that shines a spotlight on them, please let us know so we can share the good news with others. On many occasions in the past, we would see these accolades in other newspapers but we were never called.

We will do our best to come out to your school and provide the coverage your students deserve, but we cannot shine that spotlight if we do not know anything about it. This is very important to us, because we really do try to put as much “good news” in our paper each week as we can.

To reach our editorial staff, contact by telephone at 724-852-2251. If you want to reach us by email, please contact us at steve@greenecountymessenger.com or jane@greenecountymessenger.com. We’d love to hear from you…

…Before I wrap this up, I just wanted to give two “Greene Thumbs Up” to the many folks who helped make this year’s Greene County Fair a success. I spent quite some time during the week attending many of the activities, and I have to say that everything seemed to be running great and those in attendance really seemed to be enjoying themselves. (By the way, be sure to check out our fair wrapup coverage inside this very issue.)

I know my soon-to-be 3-year-old son Bryson enjoyed himself tremendously. He rode all the kiddie rides, loved the petting zoo and didn’t want to leave the Funhouse and Bouncy House. But what surprised me the most was that he was obsessed with riding the Ferris Wheel. The little guy rode it for the first time and wanted to keep riding it, even if his parents were somewhat less than thrilled with being so darned high up in the sky.

(You know, it’s funny: You put me on the tallest, fastest roller coaster and I will love it. But there’s something inherently terrifying to me about the Ferris Wheel. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the last time I rode one was just a few years ago when I was taking photos for the paper from the very top of the ride, and I got so carried away with what I was doing that I leaned too far forward and almost fell out. THAT would have made a great front page story for the Messenger that week.)

Anyway, as I was watching Bryson ride it with a look of sheer delight on his face, I couldn’t help but smile, even as I was quietly hanging on for dear life and softly praying for the ride to end. I smiled, because his joy reminded me of what I felt when I was a young child and I rode thrill rides with exhilaration and awe, and I was grateful to be able to see my son enjoy that same feeling.

I sincerely hope that when he is old enough to enjoy big roller coasters at Kennywood and Cedar Point that his old man will be able to sit right next to him and still enjoy them as much as he does. I still fondly and vividly remember riding the Thunderbolt as a kid with my Dad, and it’s moments like that that I hope to cherish one day with Bryson.

Just as long as I don’t have to ride that darned Ferris Wheel again…

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