The October Wall

Monday, November 17, 2025

Happy Monday, my friends! I live next to a historic brick school. When it was first built, over 100 years ago, it was the town’s high school. Through subsequent changes and renovations, it has served different groups of students and now hosts students in grades K-5. This morning, I watched one of the students bolt down the sidewalk, up the stairs to the building’s front lawn, across the lawn, and up the stairs into the building. Arms flailing, book bag and jacket barely hanging on, they remarkably stayed upright and made it into school. I couldn’t have done that, but they were an apt metaphor for how I feel at this time of year.

I’ve lived much of my life on academic calendars and regardless of the school, college, or university, there is a reality we often call the “October wall,” though it tends to continue well into November. No matter how excited students, faculty, and staff are for the start of the school year or how much they dread the end of summer, there is always a feeling of newness that helps people transition into the academic year. September is, therefore, hopeful and filled with potential, but October, particularly the second half of October, is different. By about October 15 people—not just students—are no longer filled with so much hope. They’re in the long slog which feels like the middle of the proverbial tunnel: the light from the entrance has faded and the light at the end is just a spec on the horizon. Enter November and the loss of actual light by 5pm and the metaphor becomes reality. The October wall is not so much an obstacle to tackle as it is something one runs into without really seeing.

My October wall has almost always been boredom. I begin the semester excited for the newness and the challenge of courses and study, but by the end of October I’m ready to be done. I’m ready to move on. It doesn’t matter how decent or even incredible the material, I still feel an enormous level of boredom and even apathy.

Our lives often flow in similar waves of excitement and boredom. Have you ever enthusiastically volunteered for a committee or to plan an event only to find yourself questioning that decision a few months in? We learn to put on a “good” face and be positive about fulfilling our commitments even if we loathe every damn moment.

What is your “October wall?” How do you overcome boredom and apathy in the roles you’ve taken on?

Let us pray: God, we usually don’t think of you as being bored or apathetic, but maybe you feel that way too. Be our example and model for living with and fighting the internal forces which cause us to lose interest and struggle to meet our commitments. Help us find ways to show up, work, and live in the midst of our October walls and any time our interest wanes. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Blessings on your weeks, my friends! Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.

Faithfully,

Ben +