Linksy Bits: Your Fresh September Self

Dancing in September, plus Autumnal Equinox balance, risotto, and that movie we're all going to see, right?

Hi, it was the 90’s. That’s me, right here at the bottom. :) Please don’t kill me Michelle, Abby, Big Sis, Korin, or Sarah.

For so much of our young lives, the real New Years Eve was Labor Day. The world turned in September when we’d level up: to a new grade, a new school, a new identity (Frosh!), a new look from a summer growth spurt (I’m talking bras here), a new chance to re-invent yourself. I still feel that rush with this month and get a little buzz from the smell of freshly sharpened No. 2 Ticonderogas.

At some point Septembers become just another flip of the calendar. And then, for many, again they guide your timetable but it’s about observing the change happening around you, to your babes or people. It’s less an invitation to stand center stage, and more like a seat in the orchestra pit as you play your stars on and off.

Which is why your college self must be paid homage.

Sure, you were a mess. But it’s likely the last time you were in with a group of humans that were also a mess as y’all tumbled toward the inevitability of adulthood. I was thinking about this very thing earlier this year when I (after a martini) hit send on an update to my alumni profile in the Lawrence University database. Hi fellow Larries!

I had totally forgotten about it until I saw it printed in the alumni magazine:

I missed my reunion in 2023 because it fell on the weekend my mother chose to become the wind. I had been keenly looking forward to it because I was going to get to see the clutch of women who graduated a year before me and after me, too. That three-year cluster of humans created parts of me that I fucking love.

It hit me at the reunion I’d gone to years ago, after a weekend of hugging, drinking, resolving old histories, and re-founding connections. I was in the car driving back across Wisconsin to an unhappy marriage, a chaotic space where I had been convincing myself that I didn’t matter as much as the family did. I was there for the job, for the kids, for the business, to keep it all together and patched. Chugging along. As one does.

But, that weekend changed me. It was the moment I saw my September self again, through my college friends’ eyes. She was fearless and loud, and regularly told people to fuck off despite having a clear lack of height. Someone who loved hard, with intent. A force.

And now I’m reminded each September when the air starts to cool and the smell of textbooks comes back to me, exactly how I would like to greet each year:

A tightly stacked human full of potential and wit.

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Do you remember? The 21st of September?

I can’t believe I chose that as my wedding day, gah. Bygones. Anyhoo, let’s take a Woo Girl moment for the autumnal equinox this weekend, which means that the days are exactly even. Daylight minutes and darkness minutes are exactly the same. And didn’t we just have a full, blood, harvest moon??

Talk about a perfect time to consider your balances.

Some of you know how much I love to burn things (we’ll get really into it in December.) Well this is the perfect time to light a bonfire and burn some notes to the universe. But instead of casting wishes and intentions for things ahead, consider burning notes of gratitude for what has already come. Mark the abundance of your life.

Clearing the past makes room for the change that’s coming. As it always is.

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WHAT TO READ/WATCH/LISTEN/COOK FOR WHEN the sweaters are calling you, even though the flip flops are still in high rotation.

» Are you interested in a social media app where the only responses come from bots? I’m actually fascinated by this, because nothing you post is “public” it’s like a diary that talks back to you? Would you do this??

» Feeling big feels for the talented and iconic Demi Moore in her new movie The Substance, but I can’t comment on it directly because I haven’t seen it. Are you into it? The Cut has written something about it, which I’m not going to read before I go see it. I plan to see it this weekend and put up a post next week about it, if you’re game to play along!!

(if you’re up for a movie club, should we do that? in MN?)

» I am ALLLL about recasting sweater weather as risotto weather. I’m for sure getting into this oven baked risotto (I guess if you’re not into stirring?) and this risotto al limone if you don’t have any stock on hand.

» Yes I finished The Perfect Couple and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and my biggest take away is how everyone must be making a ton more money than me.

» Kamala won by being all the things.

» Please dip into Paper Clip, a substack by the deeply and importantly talented Nicole Ballengee. We both love linguine vongole and she upholsters a mean chair.

Jeffrey Czum