Starting a new school year, you might have had the thought...'This is just the beginning...' which has the element of time attached to it...Or you've had this happen already...'Just then, (in that moment) in the middle of my video game, the teacher told me to put my phone away'...or 'Just when I thought (at that particular time) I had this list of vocabulary down, five new words were added.'
When we think of just as an adjective, we normally use it when it comes to what is fair and reasonable which came about in the late 14th century. Something that was 'just' was morally upright, equitable, impartial, conforming to rules.
As we head into a new adventure, called a new school year, we expect things to be just and fair, whether it be a grade reflecting our work and efforts to how people are treated.
Our vocabulary, for the most part, uses the word just as an adverb...it is more superficial in kind whether it be in the context of... it's just a minute (and nothing more) or 'just' now when referring to when the teacher just gave a page number to turn to, or even when something is just right (correct dimension of satisfaction) as in a piece of Jets' pizza...and we can all relate to just being a point of emphasis as in, after 10 weeks of school until Thanksgiving break you exclaim after a mere two weeks, 'I just can't take it anymore!'
Maybe we should be more interested in the adjective form of 'just' when it comes to describing a noun, in this case, a person...you. Can others describe you as a just person, someone who fairly treats others with sincere goodness and empathy? Or would we want others to describe us as 'just' ok, just there, just mediocre, just (or barely) hardly making a difference or getting by.
This is something to pause and ponder as these blog posts will continue to encourage you to do... and if nothing else, for this new school venture of awesome possibilities ahead, let us not look back with regret in time, measure, or character and say at its end, 'I should have done more..."If only I had just..."