The day some young people have perhaps been dreading while others have been eagerly anticipating has either arrived or is imminent: the first day of school.

The day came for Buckingham County on Thursday; Cumberland County, Monday; and Prince Edward County Public Schools Wednesday.

The 2016-17 school year officially gets started for Fuqua School students Monday.

While some students are excited to tackle classroom duties, probably a larger number are struggling to muster up enthusiasm for digging into textbooks, with the excitement they have being focused primarily on the social opportunities school affords.

I was one of the students who was not likely to get excited by classroom tasks, even though I was a good student overall. However, there are a couple of things I wish I had considered, particularly in high school, which could have altered my approach to school, made me more excited for it and could have made life easier, in general.

First, during the early years of life, young people primarily have one set job — school. They do not get to choose from a list, and the job has to be done. One thing I did not look at as a choice, however, was whether to enjoy the job or not. But that is a choice. And since the job is required, why not try to enjoy it?

Secondly, school, even early on, can have major consequences in helping young people decide what they want to do for a living once they join the adult world. It can be easy to put off this big-picture thinking for college or even later, but having this forward-looking mindset while in high school and earlier adds important stakes to school. It helps one to see school not just as a job, but a means of laying a foundation for life in the workforce.

TITUS MOHLER is sports editor of The Farmville Herald. His email address is titus.mohler@farmvilleherald.com.