The incoming freshmen arrived in town this weekend. Next Monday, the rest of the students come back. With this happening, you’d think I’d have an issue with still living in this college town, that unlike many of my graduated peers, I haven’t gone on to bigger and better things, like heading out to Oregon, or becoming an English teacher, or getting married and moving to Ireland. Or maybe you’d think that I have an issue with working for the same company I was working for before I started college. Or maybe you’d think all of those thing.

But that’s not it at all.

I have no problem living in my college town as a graduate. It’s a good community, and if more people would stay after graduation and use their newfound knowledge to help build it up, it could be a great community. This place is small enough for a group of dedicated individuals to actually have a positive effect on its future. No, I have no issues about staying here. My only issue, in that regard, is that not enough people do.

I also have no problem about continuing to work for the same company that I started with. As soon as I graduated, they gave me a promotion that took advantage of the skills I acquired in college. It’s not my dream job, of course, but until I take the steps to make that dream a reality, I’m going to need a job, right? And as far as jobs go, mine is a damn good one. Not only do I work from home, but they pretty much let me write my own job description too. With a set-up like that, it’s my own fault if I have any complaints about my job. No, I have no issues with my job.

Instead, my issue is that the college’s Fall semester starts next week and as a graduate, I don’t have any classes to look forward to.

For the last four years, late August, with its beautiful Vermont days and cool Vermont nights, has meant that it’s almost time to curl up with a big, fat, dense, incomprehensible book and imagine what the words might mean. That it’s almost time to sit around with wonderfully creative and intelligent people and talk about ideas that seem so important but have absolutely no bearing on the world around us. That it’s almost time to learn, once again, that humanity is clueless, and so wonderfully inventive. For the last four years, late August has meant that it’s almost time to get my mind blown.

But this year, it only means that it’s almost time for Fall. And I have an issue with that.