A new school year

I’ve always enjoyed the start of a new school year at IU. The inhabitants of Bloomington have had a few months without the massive student population being in residence, and everyone is looking forward to their return. All the merchants, restaurants, cinemas, apartment owners, virtually all businesses are making sure they are ready. Advertisements are edited, inventory is increased and rearranged, extra help is hired. On campus, faculty come back and prepare, the IUPD ramps up, scholastic departments get ready. In just a few weeks, Bloomington will be buzzing again!\nWhen the students arrive, Bloomington stops dozing and palpable human energies pervade the area. Bloomington can be a marvelous place to live any time of the year, but when the new school year begins, you can feel all the joy, sorrow, hopes and everything else that makes us human in such greater quantities. Sure, us locals can complain about the lack of parking spaces, the lines at restaurants and theaters, a whole list of minor grievances, but it is IU and the students that fill our city with infusions of life each year.\nI sometimes think that this is what often keeps me going, keeps me holding onto hope. I often am bluntly critical of our corrupt, repressive and dangerous government and often lose hope that there can ever be a significant change, but it is our people that are important. Every student that arrives here with hopes and plans is another person with the glorious human flaws and gifts we all have. All these lives have potentials, and who knows what future they will build. Each new year brings new possibilities. As Cicero reputedly said, “While there’s life, there’s hope.” So, let’s welcome them back for all our various reasons!