https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/01/top-10-books-about-new-beginnings

From Virginia Woolf to Lorrie Moore and Diana Wynne Jones, fresh starts provide an endless source of inspiration for fiction

The other night I dreamed it was my last day of high school. I was gathering schoolbooks when something caught my eye: lettuce leaves, lying on the carpet. Perfect! I thought, scooping them up and packing them. Now I won’t be hungry at university next year! I woke still glowing with pride.

Since that dream, I’ve been thinking about how neatly education arranges life into endings and beginnings. You finish one segment, take a summer holiday, and step into the next – nervous, excited – and equipped, if you have my sort of foresight, with a handful of rotting lettuce leaves. But grownup life is more chaotic. There are plenty of potential beginnings – jobs, partners, dietary changes, but nobody has drawn up a schedule. Changes tend to be flung at you, or depend on your own efforts.