Last week, all of the major deadlines for my summer work came and went.  Wednesday through Friday was like a blur, but when all the dust settled I realized that I could now focus on the coming academic year.  Furthermore, I felt like I was now free to consider the next phase in my professional life.  Obviously I don’t know what the outcome of my tenure application will be, but I know that VCU is stuck with me for at least two more years.  And, now that I’ve lived in Richmond for a full year, I feel personally settled.  So, while I have some ideas, I don’t yet fully know what is in store for me over the next couple of years.  However, to start that reflective process and this next phase, here’s what I did over the weekend:

• I cleared the inboxes of my two e-mail accounts to zero.
• I completely cleared my RSS aggregator (I had reached 1000+ in Google Reader; apparently it doesn’t count higher than 1000)
• I paid all of the outstanding (meaning unpaid, not “awesome”) bills sitting on my desk.
• Finally, last night, I washed all of my work-related clothes.

I think that last act was symbolically important.  It represented (literally and figuratively) a clean start for me as the new academic year kicks off.

So, for all of you educators out there, I wish you a fresh, clean start to the school year.