Nip in the Air

You’d think that by now, 25 years after my final back-to-school eve, I’d no longer feel the anxiety and hopefulness and restlessness that I feel about tomorrow -- the “first day of school,” metaphorically -- and the year ahead.

Maybe you, too, remember your mind racing with questions on this night: Would you catch the bus, would your outfit be cool enough, who would be in your classes, who would your teachers be, how would you fit in?

Today we took a hike with a four-year-old 
who never stopped asking questions

This Labor’s Day night, no brick-and-mortar school awaits my entrance tomorrow, and probably not yours, either. Thank goodness for that. I don’t miss the first-day’s wanderings of labyrinthine school halls, fumbling with locker codes, inevitably arriving late in the toughest teacher’s classroom, searching for friendly faces in the cafeteria.

And yet this moment does signify a universal turning of a new page. For me, tomorrow is the day that daily5Remodel.com goes live, with some luck -- not in its full unveiling but in welcoming people to register to receive the inaugural issue (which will publish two weeks from today, on September 20).

For you -- for any professional in any capacity -- tomorrow may also signify the beginning of a new period. The pool has closed. Summer vacation is over. The kids are back in school. There’s a nip in the air. And perhaps (finally!) those prospects you talked to months ago will make a move on that proposal they’ve been sitting on, now that their kids are back in school and their minivans are unpacked, post-vacation.


Your staff -- they too will be back, rejuvenated and partied out and fully engaged in the work that must be done between now and the next big holiday break.

Many of you have told me it’s been a long, slow summer. Your business has never been more prepared for growth, but your clientele is barely moving. Well, the season (and the page) is turning. Time will reveal what the "new normal" looks like, but I’m psyched for the change, whatever it is.

I hope you are too.

Leah Thayer

leah@daily5Remodel.com