Eclipse, Murdokus and first jobs

Well, that's it. This week we are going back to school and even though, for the sake of appearances, teachers and students keep saying "how lazy we are and how little desire we have," the reality is that we are always excited (even if just a little bit) to start over. Starting a new school year is like falling in love again: new clothes, organizing plans, the desire to do it well. This year, yes.

For us, the year starts now; our ritual is not the twelve bells, it is starting a new planner and writing down the schedule. In our house, we leave behind the summer of first jobs. Two of my children have already worked and have not been able to enjoy the eternal days of waking up late, lounging on the sofa, and having as their only goal going out with friends. What a brutal learning experience, the first job.

Many hours on my feet, without a mobile phone and facing the public, sweating it out. At first, I had my doubts because one of them told me that they enjoyed going to work so much that they didn't see much point in finishing high school. Two months later, with very little free time and a lot of accumulated fatigue, they are very clear that they want to continue studying and, in fact, they told me that “they had never been so eager to go back to school”. Literally.

We also leave behind the summer of the Murdokus (a mix of Sudoku and Cluedo to solve murders based on clues). Who would have thought that a pastime would become the protagonist of this scorching summer and that we would all rack our brains to know who killed Vincent. What a thrill to see a book that goes viral as entertainment and not just as a reading. It has been the perfect occasion for teenagers who read little or not at all to discover that a book can also be fun. I have the feeling of breathing an analog nostalgia and I notice that, finally, we are learning to disconnect from the mobile phone and we tend to recover paper. At the beach, I have seen many people doing all kinds of puzzles and adult summer notebooks that reminded me of the vacation workbooks that were always left half-finished.

We leave behind the summer of the eclipse. I went there skeptical and I didn't think it would impact me so much to see how the sky darkened and the ring shone. It was a subject that interested me very little, if at all, and I didn't even buy the glasses until that very morning. Taking advantage of the fact that in Calafell (where I live all year round) it was 100% visible, many friends came to my house and we shared a unique, precious, perfect moment together. A vacant lot, beers in a cooler, and beach chairs because we are getting on in years. I think that, apart from the eclipse, we all forever keep the memory of the people who were with us on the twelfth of August.

And as the song of the summer says, perhaps it was just “that”. A summer afternoon, a group of friends, and realizing that we always want too much and need little. We leave behind the summer that young people wanted to bring down the influencers because they create false needs and make them believe in a fictional life. Finally, teenagers are beginning to raise their voices and claim that it is not necessary to take a plane in the summer, that it is normal to work and help one's parents, and that not everyone has a huge group of friends on the Costa Brava. I have seen a lot of content in Catalan claiming to move away from being a pilates girl who drinks matcha in Formentera, because no one believes that anymore.

Life is what happens when we are not taking pictures. A week awaits us of preparing school supplies, thinking about extracurricular activities and returning to school with blank notebooks and tanned skin. It is also the time to send messages to reconnect with the people who awaken in us the interest of a Murdoku, the sensations of an eclipse and with whom, by their side, we live in analog. Welcome to the new school year.