Yes, I am fully aware summer is just beginning, but really, hasn’t it permanently ended? These days, summer is only a reality if you make it that way. Endless days spent outside at camp are no longer handed to you, and internships sandwiched between weeks with no commitments fade into oblivion.
Life after college means working full time with little or no accrued vacation. If you want a summer, you have to fabricate one. It means capitalizing on each hour of a weekend, pushing yourself to go out one or two more nights a week than usual, and planning activities in the sun – conscientiously placing yourself into a mentality of summer. With the exception of the 4th of July, which thank you very much is a Sunday this year (naturally, I checked), there is little to celebrate and no sigh of relief at the end of finals – only nice weather that you may or may not be able to see from a window while sitting at your desk.
Summer vacation is tied exclusively to youth and down-the-road job permanence and clout; the former we are too old for, the latter is a good ways off. Retirement, anyone?
As we say so long to a literal summer as a several month vacation from reality and responsibility, we must bid hello to a new type of summer – a mental season – that is only as real, fun, relaxing, and full of time in the sun as we make it. So get crackin’!
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