The Year that Summer Died

Growing up is weird and I wanna know why no one talks about that? Why does no one warn you and prepare you for all the unexpected changes? Why isn’t there some sort of halfway house between college and the real world? Do people really successfully make this transition and keep their sanity?

You see, it comes in waves. Some of the growing up process seems gradual and natural. For instance, I don’t have the urge to change my AIM screen name every other day, or lick just the middle out of the Oreo and put the cookies back in the box. I would say that is just a natural change that happened when I matured and grew up. However, some things are very sudden and seem to come out of no where. Take summer vacation for example. I can’t think of a time when summer break wasn’t the most exciting time of the whole year. Until now. Until now, summer was a time when me and my friends were all out of school for a little while, and when we all flocked back to our hometowns. It was sad to say goodbye to college friends from different states, but it was always good to go home, knowing it wasn’t permanent. Summers were spent with silly summer jobs, laying out by the pool, and catching up with friends. For 22 years of my life, this is what summer was about. Well, newsflash, ladies and gentlemen. Apparently this isn’t a forever kinda thing. Apparently when you grow up and graduate college, people move away and get real jobs, where they don’t even get summer break! Luckily I picked a dead end major in college and have to go back to more school before I can get a job so I have no real job in my near future, so I still get a summer break. And boy was I excited to come home and hang out by the pool with my friends! But wait…where are my friends? That’s right. They grew up. They have real jobs where they have to work all day, and go to the gym, and make lesson plans, and plan their weddings. Honestly, it sounds silly, but nothing could have prepared me for the death of my usual summer plans. I’ve been home exactly a week and I feel like I might explode. I have no friends,  no social life whatsoever, no job, no schedule, and nothing to do. I feel slightly pathetic and useless. I feel like I shouldn’t be in my own house. I feel like my house was a place to come home for the summer. But this…this is not summer. My mom works from home, which is usually not a problem because I’m out with friends or doing things during the summer. But this year, I wake up, and she’s working. I go downstairs and eat, and she’s working. I watch TV, shower, and go to the grocery, and she’s working. I take a nap, and she’s working. And the whole dang time she’s working, I feel like I should be doing something productive or like I’m intruding in my own house, or just like I shouldn’t be there. So folks, enjoy your summers while you still have them. Cause although the summer season might always be around, the typical summer break doesn’t last forever, apparently.

RIP Summer break (1989-2012)