Happy New Year? The End of August, Transitions, & Fall's Promise

Every year around the end of August, I have the same thought: Happy New Year.

Maybe it's the changing light, the return to routines, or simply the fact that I spent nearly twenty years as a student. Whatever the reason, September has always felt more like a beginning than January.

I'm a huge folk music fan, and I've been having a fantastic "Sad Girl Summer" listening to Noah Kahan's The Great Divide: Last of the Bugs on repeat. The album opens with End of August, which, for me, perfectly captures that familiar feeling of standing between two seasons - looking back at something that's ending while trying to gather yourself for what's next.

It's trite but important to say that transitions are hard. We spend a lot of time preparing for beginnings - new jobs, new files, new clients, new challenges - but less time acknowledging endings. Summer winds down, vacations end, kids and summer law students head back to school, workloads ramp up. There's often an undercurrent of grief mixed with anticipation.

As August comes to a close, perhaps there's no need to rush past the feeling that something is changing. We can appreciate what summer gave us, acknowledge whatever we're leaving behind, and decide how we want to arrive for September.

I will fully admit that I’ve never been a New Year’s Eve or New Year’s resolution fan. It just felt like a lot of pressure, a lot of expectation: have the most fun, make plans to do more, achieve more, become better. As a kid, a night I always treasured was going out to buy school supplies for September with my Dad. I would look at the pens and binders and pencil boxes and choose carefully, wondering how the colours and patterns and graphics might shape the person I would be when I returned to school. It didn’t challenge me to change who I was; it offered an opportunity to set an intention. 

To me, September invites something quieter than January – it’s not about self-improvement; it’s about recalibration. Not a demand to become someone new, but an invitation to pause, take stock, and ask how I'd like to move through the season ahead.

Instead of making resolutions, perhaps we can make a few gentler commitments. What do I want to make space for? How do I want work to feel this fall? Which relationships do I want to invest in? What boundaries serve me? What kind of colleague do I want to be? And where might I need support before I find myself running on empty? Those questions won't eliminate the pressures of legal work, but they might help us move into the season with a little more clarity, intention, and self-compassion.

Setting an intention is meaningful in itself. It gives us a direction of travel and reminds us what matters. The challenge, of course, is living those intentions once the pace of legal work inevitably picks up. If we hope to be more present, more patient, more courageous, or more connected this fall, it helps to have the skills and support to respond to challenges in ways that reflect those intentions. 

That spirit has shaped our fall programming at LAPBC, and I am genuinely excited to share our plans with you. We’ll start the season with a workshop on managing emotions for legal professionals with Michael K. and Jeff, where they will explore how emotional awareness isn't about avoiding difficult emotions; it's about responding to them in ways that reflect our intentions rather than simply reacting in the moment. We'll also be offering a time-limited support group on self-compassion with Jeff, creating space to practise these ideas alongside others in a supportive, reflective community. From there, we'll explore how those individual skills ripple outward into the legal community, starting with thriving through civility with Marv and yours truly.  In October, we'll welcome Executive Function & ADHD Coach Chelsea Bergeron and psychotherapist Erin Peters for a deep dive into neurodiversity in the legal community with both a workshop series and webinar. Then, in November, we'll turn our attention to psychological safety, bullying, and healthier workplace cultures with a workshop series and webinar alongside employment lawyer Jessica Forman from Forte Law.

One initiative I'm particularly excited about is the September launch of our new drop-in group, Well-Being Media Mondays with the Michaels, hosted by our very own Michael K. and Michael L. Some of the richest conversations about well-being start with a story. Throughout the year, we'll be exploring books, podcasts, films, television, articles, and other media that touch on themes relevant to legal professionals, creating space to reflect, ask questions, and learn from one another. My hope is that Media Mondays becomes a place where curiosity, connection, and a little bit of fun come together. And because well-being also means making space for some of life's more difficult chapters, the Michaels will once again be facilitating their time-limited support group on grief later this fall, offering a compassionate place for legal community members navigating loss.

As summer gives way to fall, perhaps the question isn't "What should I accomplish this year?" but "How do I want to live and work this season?" Sometimes the most meaningful fresh start isn't about becoming someone new. It's about reconnecting with the person you want to be - and choosing, with intention, how you'd like to move forward.

So, from all of us at LAPBC – Happy New Year. 

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