All throughout elementary and middle school, I remember writing reports on the first day of school about what I did that summer. I would write about the camping trips I had gone on with my family, or going swimming with my friends. Nothing very important or particularly stressful would happen then, and summer was a time of laziness and fun.
Now that I’m in college, summer means working as much as humanly possible and trying to squeeze in babysitting gigs and mowing the lawn around my packed schedule. I have some time for my friends, but most of them are also working or busy a majority of the time, so finding time that we can get together is often difficult. I miss being able to have my mom call another mom and arrange for me to be sent away for the night.
Maybe I look back on that time with too much nostalgia; maybe those days and nights I spent watching movies or eating junk food really were unremarkable. But I really did have a lot of fun. This phase of my life seems to be all about coming of age, and I think it’s important to realize where I come from in order to know where I can go. I spent summers as a kid having fun, and now I’m working so that I can have fun during the rest of the year. And I think I’m OK with that.
Once I graduate I can’t imagine needing a summer-only job, and any difference between summer and the rest of the year will disappear. I imagine myself working every month of the year in a steady job, without anything special about summers aside from the sweltering heat.
I think I can reflect on the summers I spent as a kid without wanting to be that young again. I like where I’m at now as a college student, and there’s no way I’d want to go through my awkward preteen years again (actually, I'd prefer to forget they ever happened). Those experiences helped to shape me, but it's OK to change and grow. So this summer vacation, I’m going to work as hard as I can and better my future. I’ll pack as much into it as possible, whether it’s friends or work, and I’ll make sure I give myself something to write about in the fall.
