In my humble opinion Good morning, Midd

Author: Daniel Roberts

So, did you have a "back to school" dream this week? Every year, just before I return to our good ol' institution of higher learning, I have my recurring nightmare. Okay, not exactly a nightmare - but it's definitely not one of those "fun with Jessica Alba" dreams.

In mine, I pull up to Hepburn and realize my car is empty. I've forgotten all my stuff. It's strange, too, because I do not consciously feel anxious for school. Yet, the dream always comes.

What is it about those last precious weeks before school starts every year that makes us so nostalgic? It seems like one could have sat around for the entire summer cleaning pools or scooping ice cream, longing for Middlebury because you were so damn bored, and then - boom! - it's a week before school, and suddenly you dread going back, and you're scrambling to see every single long-lost high school buddy before you leave town.

Standing in line yesterday, waiting to get hosed by those rich fat cats at the bookstore, a friend of mine said, "This was the first year in a while that I really didn't want summer to end." He's not the only one.

According to some shrink (okay, I'm required to say it's clinical psychologist Robin Goodman), "back-to-school blues" is a very real thing. Goodman states that both children and adults associate the summer with freedom and the fall with tedious labor.

Yet I think the end-of-summer rush to "go big" isn't because people are afraid to return to college. I think the reluctance comes from something deeper and unconscious: a longing to hold on to old friendships.

You may have had a different experience during your summer, but most of my friends ended up making very little time to see their old pals, and instead found themselves way too "busy." I acted the same way. Then, I suddenly had a great urge to see as many friends from home as I could before coming back to Midd.

It reminds me of a conversation with my dad before sophomore year of high school. My eight-year stint at summer camp in Maine had just ended. I was fifteen, and I was worried there were guys from my age group that I would never see again. He told me, straight up, this was true. He gave me one of those Bob Saget, comforting daddy speeches like on "Full House." A real Kodak moment. He said we have to lose relationships along the way as we progress to each new stage of life: college, career world, etc. He said yeah, it's sad, but you can't hold on to everyone, so you are continually losing people to make room for new friendships.

Obviously this is no secret to me as a junior in college, but at the time, I remember being really upset. I think I even said, "I don't want to lose touch with anyone! Ever!" But I was just being an idiot. In truth, you learn to deal. And yet, you still have those pangs - the moments in which you desperately try to rekindle old bonds.

I guess the only conclusion to make about those last weeks of summer is that many people do make some effort to go all-out and meet up with as many people as possible. It's hard to say where it comes from, but even though going back to school can be painful, where better to ease back into the daily grind than here at breezy, homework-void Middlebury College? Right.

Well, I don't have any answers. I just get to make annoying commentary. Good luck.

Daniel Roberts '09 is from Newton, Mass.