The Morning Alarm Rings Again

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There is one sure sign that summer is winding down in Vermilion and surrounding communities, and it has nothing to do with the leaves beginning to change colour or the temperature dropping overnight.

The school buses are back on the road.

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, students across Buffalo Trail Public Schools returned to the classroom for the beginning of another school year, bringing with them backpacks, lunch kits, new school supplies and, depending on the student, varying degrees of enthusiasm about hearing the morning alarm again.

For families, the first week of September marks the return of a routine that disappeared somewhere around the end of June.

Once again, lunches need to be packed, clothes need to be found, alarms need to be set and everyone needs to get out the door on time.

For rural families, it can also mean an early morning trip down the driveway to meet the school bus, while in town, sidewalks and crosswalks that were relatively quiet throughout the summer are once again filled with students making their way to school.

The change isn’t limited to students and their families.

Teachers and school staff have returned to busy hallways and classrooms, school buses are once again travelling highways and country roads, and motorists are being reminded to slow down and watch for children in school and playground zones.

After two months of summer schedules, September seems to put the entire community back on the clock.

Soon, school sports, clubs, practices, homework and extracurricular activities will begin filling family calendars again, and before long the relaxed days of July and August will seem much farther away than they actually are.

For some students, Wednesday marked the beginning of a journey.

Kindergarten and Grade 1 students walked through school doors carrying backpacks that may have seemed almost as big as they were, beginning a routine that will become part of their lives for years to come.

For others, it marked the beginning of the end.

Grade 12 students entered school this September knowing that when June arrives, they will walk out those same doors as graduates.

Between those two milestones are thousands of ordinary school days, spelling tests, math lessons, field trips, basketball games, friendships, forgotten homework, favourite teachers, scattered snow days and countless moments that don’t seem particularly important while they’re happening.

Until, one day, they are memories.

For parents watching a little one head off to school for the first time, June 2038 probably seems impossibly far away.

Ask the parents of this year’s graduating class how quickly those years pass.

So while Sept. 2 may have simply been another first day of school on the calendar, for every student walking through those doors, it was the beginning of another chapter.

And throughout the community, the ringing of that first school bell was a reminder to the rest of us as well.

Summer isn’t quite over yet.

But the morning alarm is ringing again.