I Get Summer. Finally.
Here we are, midway through the never never land of Summer vacation. Once you get out of school yourself and enter the work world, it’s easy to forget what summer vacation is supposed to be like. Pretty soon you’re talking like a government official, saying that schools should go to a year round schedule and that kids forget too much over the Summer.
That’s because you’ve been all funned out. You have gotten trapped into the “everyone has to work all the time” song and you are singing it along with everyone else. Trust me, I know. I used to be the soprano on the second row, near the back.
You just may have forgotten what summer is like when you’re a kid. I had. I think this is the first year I really got it. Last year I was busy making Summer too much like the school year with so many planned activities the word vacation had pretty much disappeared in favor of “development.” Ick.
This year I’ve seen the light. I finally get “summer.” The amnesia of adulthood has lifted and I’m back to remembering what makes summer, well, SUMMER.
Summer is 10 to 10. Go to sleep at 10 pm, wake up at 10 am.
Summer is going swimming when it’s hot, dressing your dogs in t-shirts for fun, and lying around the house like lizards, blinking only during commercials.
Summer is a new set of goggles, a new bathing suit and new tan lines that are helpful when your mom is lining up your suit for the 5th time that week and it’s only Tuesday.
Summer is ice cream, cereal for dinner, and melons, melons, melons.
Summer is having adventures, sometimes in your room, sometimes flying away from home for the first time, sometimes on the diving board.
Summer is learning how to swim in the deep end, stand up for yourself, and learning how to pretend to cry so well during a video shoot with your sister that you have adults from around the house running to your aid. Which makes you cry for real.
Summer is scraped toes from rough pool bottoms, suntanned noses and golden highlights in dark hair.
Summer is over too soon, and well worth the month it takes to catch back up in school.
At least at our house it is. But check with me in August, I may be desperately circling the grade school by then.
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