One way the year has started again for us mid-year: starting a new school year in August

One of the weird things about our year this year is that in August (now) we’re starting the new year. The year has reset halfway through. We’ve been here for six months and yet school is starting again after the summer break. We’ve had a big long break to help us make it through this next year. If we were in Australia we’d be in the dark of winter longing for the summer sun and the end of the year break.

So in my head we’re kind of in that mid-year ‘you’ve just gotta make it to the end of the year’ mindset. But actually we’re six months in and we’re starting again. We’ve had our summer break and we’ve got twelve months ahead of us. I need to change my mindset as I prepare for the year ahead and think ‘new year starting now’.

This realisation came home to me as we went on holidays to Thailand. It was suggested in our training to take a good break from language and the country, if you can, around the six to nine month mark. This can be the time of culture shock and homesickness. And even if you’re not in culture shock or homesick, you’ve still spent the last six months settling in. So we did. We took a break. And the break was much needed and very helpful in that regard; our newness tiredness had taken its toll.

But the holiday (unintentionally) served another purpose. It helped to get us ready for the new year in the middle of the year. So although this is the ‘mid year musings’ blog series, it’s actually in another way a ‘new year’ series.