Back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool.

This one of my favorite times of the year. Late August and early September. It’s still hot outside, but you know that fall is fast approaching. Fall is a great season in Nashville. The leaves change colors slowly, and for several weeks there are great views of hills full of reds, oranges and yellows. I love Nashville weather because we have four actual seasons. Not like Texas, where you have summer for eight months and one icy day. But I love these pre-fall days for another reason. Nashville is full of colleges: Vanderbilt, Belmont, Trivecca, Lipscomb. And in these last weeks of August, the college kids start flooding the town. I know that in a few weeks I will be cursing them – the way they take all the tables at Panera and Satco, the way kids eight years younger than me drive cars eight years newer than mine. But for now, I just love the season. I loved college. I loved living in a dorm room, eating in the dining hall, scheduling classes around what was on TV. I loved the library, and walking across the quad, and sitting in coffee shops all afternoon reading and taking notes. I loved editing the newspaper and arguing over page design and competing in journalism contests. Aaron and I met in college, and I learned quickly how to maintain a relationship from 12 hours away and how to find the best prices on phone cards online. So when these kids start arriving in their cars, packed to the gills with shower caddies and milk crates and matching comforters, I get a little emotional. It’s such a major thing, college. You start to become who you’re going to be. You meet the people who you hope will be your lifelong friends. You get your heart broken. You learn to remedy hangovers, cram for tests, write 20-page essays in two hours. How to be a real friend. How to let people really love you. I know college isn’t like that for everyone, but I’m thankful that it was my experience. So I get a little emotional, not just for my college experience but for what these kids are getting ready to do. They are on the verge of an amazing, heartbreaking season of their lives. I hope it is everything they never thought it could be.