Two Septembers: two ways to start over

There are mornings when I have to reheat my coffee three times before taking the first sip.

September has that cruel way of treating me sometimes.

With four school-aged children, there is always something: a backpack that won't appear, a half-eaten breakfast, a school form that no one has signed…

And although I am looking forward to getting back into some kind of routine, I have to admit that it also stresses me out a little.

My children are not the only ones feeling the back-to-school season.

There is the traffic. The rush. That feeling that, suddenly, everyone starts moving at the same time.

And then there is one of my great September fears: the never-ending avalanche of WhatsApp groups.

The groups I'm asked to join, the ones I had forgotten existed, and, somehow, that new subgroup that seemed completely unnecessary until someone decides it turns out to be essential.

The long Sevillian summer is beginning to come to an end.

The heat is still there, although it is starting to feel a little less heavy. August is fading away and the city is slowly beginning to change its pace.

Everyone seems to be getting ready to start over.

A coffee that waits

In the middle of all that chaos, my coffee simply waits for me.

I heat it up.

I get distracted.

I heat it up again.

Don't crucify me for it. I know that a good coffee shouldn't be reheated three times, but some mornings life has other plans.

Finally, even on the most chaotic morning, I manage to sit down.

I take that first sip.

And that is the moment I was really waiting for.

A few minutes of calm. Of doing nothing else. Of savoring something good before starting the day.

Maybe that is what I need to remember every time September returns.

We can move.

We can run.

We can take everyone where they need to be.

But we also need moments that don't ask us to go anywhere.

This is one kind of September.

But in Ethiopia, September means something different.

When September means New Year

While in Spain September usually means returning to school, work, and the back-to-routine, in Ethiopia it also means a new beginning in the most literal sense possible.

Ethiopia uses its own calendar.

The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months: twelve months of 30 days and a small thirteenth month, called Pagumen, of five or six days.

And its New Year, known as Enkutatash, is usually celebrated on September 11.

This September 2026, while we move toward the final months of the year, Ethiopia will welcome the year 2019 of its calendar.

Yes.