I was recently amused to read the following sentence in a communication from the Tennessee State Department of Education: “Tennessee is preparing to launch its third search in two years for its first superintendent over statewide school turnaround work.”
Honestly, if my wife had been required to conduct three searches for two years to find me one push lawnmower to trim my grass, my yard would have lots more weeds than it did after our fifteenth wedding anniversary.
More successful, though the name might seem to indicate otherwise, is the Fifth Third Bank. This institution is described in Wikipedia as follows:
Fifth Third Bank (5/3 Bank) is a bank headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, at Fifth Third Center. It is the principal subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp, a diversified bank holding company. One of the largest consumer banks in the Midwestern United States, it operates 1,154 branches and 2,469 automated teller machines in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina. Fifth Third Bank is incorporated in Ohio. It was state-chartered until late 2019, when it obtained a national charter.
The name "Fifth Third" is derived from the names of the bank's two predecessor companies, Third National Bank and Fifth National Bank, which merged in 1909.
The company is ranked 384th on the Fortune 500. It is one of the largest banks in the United States.
Even country music gets in on the first time. Willie Nelson (and possibly several others) sang a song that included the lyrics, “The last thing I needed, the first thing this morning, was to have you walk out on me.” Willie was probably better off, just hadn’t figured it out yet.
Rock and roll is also no stranger to firsts. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard Foreigner’s classic hit “Feels Like the First Time” blasting throughout the dorms when I lived on campus at Lincoln Memorial University. I admit, the song grew on me, and on the rare occasions I have a chance to hear it, I turn it up as loud as it will go and take a short trip back through time.
While a person may reflect about exactly what “first time” Foreigner was singing about, most would assume it concerned a new relationship that was so different from more recent experiences that it felt brand new, just as the first felt when brand new.
In 2017, a young man asked his grandfather what he thought about some of the more controversial issues that were occurring in the world. As the grandfather reflected on the way life had changed since he was young, one statement he made was, “Your grandmother and I got married first, and then lived together.”
The grandfather was born in 1947, and at the time of this statement was seventy years old. He further elaborated to his grandson that “the term ‘making out’ referred to how you did on your school exam.”
Around the time that this article will be published, many minds will be focused on a first: the first day of school.
For every student in public schools, the first day of each new school year is indeed a “first”—never again, even if a child repeats a grade, will that exact first day of school ever be repeated as in any other first day of any other school year. I suppose that could be considered a blessing.
I think back to the movie Groundhog Day, in which the character portrayed by Bill Murray repeated the exact same day of that unofficial holiday for many days in a row. The movie is old, but it is definitely worth re-watching. If you’ve never seen it before, it will be a “first” for you. If you haven’t seen it in as long as it’s been for me, it will “Feel Like the First Time.”
For me, the first day of school has become somewhat a variation of Bill Murray’s experience in Groundhog Day. If I count Headstart, I went through thirteen first days of my own public school experience.
During my college years, which stretched from the fall of 1983 to the spring of 2012, there have been innumerable first days of academic years, semesters and classes. In my educational career, I will experience my 35th first day of school this August. It takes a lot of “firsts” to make a life.
As long as there is life, there is opportunity to continually have first experiences, and this is what keeps life exciting and worth the living. At age 46, Thomas Jefferson served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington. At 81, Jefferson almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.
I make notes to myself to help me with ideas for future articles. One note I made several years ago was, “The first female to privately comfort me after Mother’s death—Baby.” In reality, Baby was the second, my wife was the first. But Baby was very special. Baby was a very petite cat who looked like a Russian blue. She was so very loving. She adored my mother, and slept on the pillow right next to Mother’s head every night. Baby was not strictly a house cat—she went outside at will.
Mother spent every day of the last month of her life in the old St. Mary’s Hospital. On the Saturday morning that Mother died, I drove home. Who should meet me in the driveway—Baby! I was amazed that she was still at the house, as I had been home very little during that time. I picked her up and cried, touched that the cat had so faithfully waited for her beloved human mother that she would never see again on this earth.
Ashamedly, I had practically forgotten about Baby, but what a comfort she was to me that saddest day of my life. I didn’t want Baby to spend most of her life outside, as I would be away more than I would be at home, and there was now no Mother to shower the beautiful, faithful cat with love. Though it hurt to lose such a loving animal companion, I gave Baby to my neighbor, Carol Lee Simmons.
And in doing so I gave Baby the very greatest gift I could bestow. Carol Lee loved that cat, and said that the cat even loved on Freddie, something that their other cats had not done to such a great extent.
I visited Baby a few times while she lived with Carol Lee, and she was just as loving to me as if we had never parted. Sadly, Baby took sick, and Carol Lee spent a huge amount of money trying to restore the sweet creature back to health, but Baby died.
I understand that Carol Lee had the cat cremated and kept the ashes in her china cabinet. Carol Lee now has also passed away, and I have never had the heart to ask Freddie about a cat’s ashes after his own great loss.
There are also ironies associated with some “firsts.” For example, an email I once received related that the first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer, as did the first “Marlboro Man.” Another interesting “first” related to me by email was the first product to have a bar code—Wrigley's gum.
I end with the adage that every day is the first day of the rest of your life. And so it is. Each day is a canvas on which we have the opportunity to paint a day of experiences. My colleague, former student and doctoral program buddy Dr. Lauren Effler gave me the idea for this article, and I close by leaving you, Faithful Reader, with a bit of her wisdom when things don’t seem to be going right: “If this is the worst thing that happens to us today, we’ll be just fine.”
May the daily canvases in your picture of life shine brightly to help the rest of us have better days.