September is the real New Year

Labor Day is a great way to bid farewell to summer - and it's a starting point for getting down to the business at hand. I always think about this weekend the same way I do spring cleaning - it's a fresh start before I head into the busy time of fall and the start of the school year. Writer Andres Martinez had the same idea, which he wrote about last September noting how "The Real New Year Starts in September." I really liked that sentiment, especially because it reminds me of all those things I want to do but haven't got around to doing yet. There is much to read and write, and there are many plans to be made for next summer. Here's some of Martinez's ideas about the real "New Year."

In college, I used to love picking up the books for each course (well, except for having to pay for them) and I’d make the most of our initial “shopping period,” when you could wander in and out of any class, as if sampling a grand buffet, before finalizing your semester schedule. The possibilities were endless. But fall isn’t only about going back to school. Every workplace I have ever worked at has treated the fall as the true beginning of the year, when new projects are launched. Fall marks the start of a new football season (both of the American and English varieties), a new TV season, and a new budgetary year for the federal government. It marks the arrival of new fashions (check out how fat those magazines are!), new car models, and of more purposeful movies and weather. In certain latitudes, the fall brings a crisp air that chides you into reaching out for your long-neglected sweater or jacket — but without the malevolence of winter.

I have every intention of going into next June with plans to avoid "the Summer of George."