Samantha Humphreys

Dingle, Liverpool Riverfront (2026)

September always feels like the new year to me, rather than January. This is not something that comes from working within formal education as it felt like that long before those times. In fact, I think it just stayed with me from when I was at school as a child rather than as an adult.

There were few things I liked about school. Actually, the only thing I liked less was going to the dentist.

I liked break times, but only really when it rained, I got to stay in and draw. I liked wearing a uniform, it was comfortable. I liked the afternoons when we watched television, The Flumps and Words and Pictures were amongst my favourites. I quite liked school trips, especially if a packet of Opal Fruits were involved and a packed lunch with a ‘trip treat’ inside. I liked when we had to write poems and I also really enjoyed Christmas activities, singing and any type of school play. One thing I really loved was going to WH Smiths just before school started and buying pencil case supplies and other new stationery.

Ok so my things I liked about school were all based on cultural pursuits and instruments I could make marks with, what can I say? I was at school, too much of all the things that excluded me from being successful. I was too quiet, too shy, I would never put up my hand to volunteer answers, which meant of course that I didn’t know any answers (I always thought that was very unfair, I was just worried I would be wrong and be laughed at). I apparently wasn’t very academic, as it turns out, this was not the case at all, I have achieved a great deal academically and I very much enjoy learning, it just took me a while to stop believing that in terms of education, I wouldn’t amount to much.

Little wonder then that I clung to the things that I knew to be certain during term time, things I knew I would get some enjoyment from and actually, routine, I am still very much a stickler for routine and in fact my whole system plunges into chaos without it.

During August this year, I was visiting Liverpool, my ‘hometown’ for a week and I often took a walk into the city centre and past the current River Island where WH Smith once was, I remembered as I passed, the times I was bought geometry sets, pencil cases, rubbers and where I saw, the very first set of Caran ‘d’Ache pencils in real life. Those, I had to wait until Christmas for though.

So now it’s September again and another year has passed by, it has been an interesting one, filled with precious moments as well as some sad times. There have been some really hot days, some very cold gin and tonics as well as some brutal reminders to live life to the fullest. That, is so important because life sometimes doesn’t so much as give you lemons, but just spits pips out at you with great force and no one ever looks back with regret and thinks how amazing it was that they didn’t waste time taking opportunities to enjoy the moment. Live the best life you can starting right now.

In the spirit of it being ‘the new year’ I can reset. I’m back to teaching new things to new people, and some familiar people too. My calendar is getting busy, which is how I like it as much as I also like the flexible working practices that I have forged for myself to keep my mind and body healthy.

This new year is off to a flying start already!