20 July 2009

summerless

Something has been bothering me, and that something is the fact that once one is an adult, apparently summer is no more. It's nice out and all, but I can't really enjoy it, not like I did when I was in school. When I was in school, summer was a big change. It was free of all the I-should-be-doings, and the pace changed completely. Now it's just more of the same. Oh, I've been to the beach. I've been camping. I ride my bike to work. But it's not the same as those few long days after the end of school, before the beginning of a job, when everything is finally, finally done, and all that remains is to start something new.

This is my second grown-up summer, and I don't like it. (I should have had three grown-up summers between college and law school, but for the first one I was working with kids, so the schedule changed for their sake, and for the other two I was in Rwanda, where summer was eternal.) Last year was my first real grown-up summer, but I hardly noticed it because Gone West was all still so new. Now Gone West is familiar, and the forever-sameness of the days brings nostalgia. I wish for a real, slow summer, with lots of long, boring days full of trips to the library and reading on the porch.

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