The new year has started, the vacation is over and schools have reopened. Bags are out again. Shoes are polished and kept in front. And as alarms make you open your eyes, you see darkness outside and curl back under the blanket, thinking it’s still night.

Then your mum calls out that it’s morning. But what about that darkness? Sorry, dear, it’s just winter doing its thing. Life is back “on track”.

But… does it really feel like it? Honestly, when I was in school, this phase never felt real at first. It felt like I was standing in a doorway — one foot still inside the holidays, the other forced into routine. Yes, forced, because of the short holidays. I mean, why so short?

Winter is still here, and we still want to feel it like it deserves to be felt — sipping coffee or hot chocolate. Life has restarted, but the brain is still in buffering mode.

Every year it’s the same. As the holidays end, calendars flip, people talk too positively: “Fresh start!” and “New year, new energy!”

I smile and nod every time I hear it; however, I’m still wra­pped in that slow, cosy winter feeling inside. The kind where mornings are hazy and quiet, nights are longer and nothing feels urgent unless you make it urgent.

When routine comes back before your mind does

Schools reopening always makes this feeling louder. Suddenly, there’s structure again. Timetables, homework, lunchboxes and the phrase… “Hurry up, you’re getting late.”

Many kids are excited to see their friends again, obviously. That part is real. But I think most of you are not excited about waking up before the sun or remembering which notebook........

© Dawn Young Magazine