september song

So here we are.

Maybe I was Jewish in another life. 

I say this because whenever Rosh Hashanah rolls around, I am reminded of how many Septembers have marked new beginnings for me. Elementary, middle, and high school always started the day after Labor Day, never in August. It was such an exciting time, getting ready to go back to school to some hotly anticipated newness; that is, until I actually did go back and realized within minutes that nothing and no one had changed. Happy New Year to me. 

Even my beloved Northwestern, on the quarter system instead of semesters, began their school year deep in September. Those particular Septembers were special, what with my years at NU being so magically liberating, but I particularly recall the one in which I was the Burger King Employee of the Month. (Fascinating and Useless Fact: I was only a sitting Employee of the Month for one day, since I had to go back to school. They awarded it early.) Even the end of that particular adventure was in and of itself an exciting new beginning: the beginning of a life where I no longer had to work at Burger King. That is saying something.

I came to New York City for a life-changing sojourn  - that wound up requiring no return trip  - on September 11, 1993. Exactly eight years later, of course, another new chapter began, for all of us. It’s sobering to remember that not all new chapters are necessarily good ones.

I was married in September. The Sesame Street shooting season used to begin in September. There was a span of time, even after graduation, where I still continued to use a datebook with an academic year rather than a calendar year. 

Even now, I find myself in a show that opened on September 1 and closes on September 26. I’m not sure what sort of new beginning this will mark, or if it will be the start of anything at all. Sometimes that’s how it works: you don’t necessarily know what’s happening while it unfolds. Oh sure, once in a while I will look up from my actor’s despair and say to no one in particular, “and now comes the act break in my A&E Biography.” But mostly, it’s hard to give a title to your chapter before it’s written. 

Anyway, even if every year of my life does not contain a pivotal September, and even if I do not celebrate Rosh Hashanah, I sort of like the idea of an autumnal rebirth. 

The weather’s a hell of a lot nicer than it is on January 1.

Hey, I take what I can get.

Yes, indeed. Welcome to me.