Ah, summer, it’s the time of going to the beach, hanging out with friends and, as is most prevalent, bad sunburns.
Yes, summer is that mystical time that every kid looks forward to for one reason or another, whether it's for the annual family vacation, or maybe just the long-deserved break from school.
When you’re a kid summer seemed endless, like this daze of long, sunny days and warm, calming nights would last forever and you could enjoy the magic of summer without end. But as you get older you start to actually look at a calendar every once in a while.
The endless daze of summer doesn’t seem so endless anymore. Between summer jobs and internships and the impending doom that is the return to school in the fall, your sense of time is sharpened to the extreme. Suddenly every weekend counts and every chance to have fun fades just as quickly as it shows up.
Plans with family and friends become set in stone weeks in advance, plans for the beach, plans for camping, plans to get ice cream, plans to make plans. But what ever happened to the spontaneity that summer used to offer?
When you’re a kid you wake up and take on each day as it comes, no plans, no thinking ahead, just seeing where each day takes you. Living life in the moment and not worrying about whether or not you’ll make it home in time for supper and just making sure you had a great day.
Your head fell to the pillow each night satisfied with what you had made of your day and being excited for what tomorrow would bring without worrying about making any plans for it. Then in the morning you would wake up and do it all over again; each day was its own and every day was new and exciting because you never knew what was going to happen.
But who says that this way of summer is only for kids? Why can’t you have both? Why not both have plans for certain things, but also live the summer as it was meant to be lived, as a vacation, a break, a time to be spontaneous.
When you wake up to go to your job or internship, go on as planned, do your work by all means. Your future and financial stability are important, but when your shift ends and you walk out of the job, maybe don’t go straight home if you don’t have to.
Take a little time to be spontaneous, go on an adventure, call up a friend and go for a hike or go to the pier or just go for a drive.
Take the long way around, take the road that winds through the woods, drive through the sunlight that filters through the leaves, take a drive by the beach and sit and watch the sunset over the water, get an ice cream, live a little, and enjoy your summer.
Because it is summer vacation after all, and we all deserve a vacation.
