Don’t Fall On My Summer

I’m going to get pelted with blueberries for saying this, but is anyone else already feeling autumn already approaching?  I know that’s nonsense, but here’s my reasoning:  It’s already August, but a couple weeks away (if that) from the start of area colleges’ fall semester, and people are starting to get the itch of back-to-school shopping and whatnot.  I’ve been to Target a couple times this week—a personal record, considering my decision to never give them any more money since it tends to cost $75 just to walk in the door—and I noticed the big school shopping areas, from supplies to dorm room fixings, to all of those other things you need to be a student.

Once you start seeing ads for paper clips and 3-cent folders in the Sunday coupons, you know it’s time to go digging for your locker lock from last year.  (Which you won’t find until you dig deep into your backpack’s OTHER pocket, the one designed specifically for Post-It Notes and which coincidentally held your gym lock.) ......or something like that...

Maybe it’s the occasional pessimist in me, but I always feel like once July 4 hits, summer is over.  There’s more than enough beautiful sunshine and heat to keep it feeling like summer for another three months after Independence Day, but perhaps it’s the anticipation of the July 4 festivities that makes it feel like the apex of the season and not just the beginning.  Maybe we need to come up with a new holiday for August that gives us something else to look forward to (not Labor Day).  Maybe we should start taking vacations in September so there’s something specific to look forward to then.  Maybe we should just always have a week off of work and school every month, even in the winter (when we’ll fly away south), so that we never feel this looming presence of a season always peering over our shoulders.

Let me say that I’m enjoying my summer immensely, even if it’s nearing its end.  I think it will take me a few more years (or decades) to not notice the school schedule I’ve only been used to for my entire life save the last couple of years.  That way, I won’t think that September is the end of fun and the beginning of eternal darkness.

That comes in October.

Image of beautiful Buffalo tree in autumn courtesy this guy.

Posted by on 08/05 at 04:55 PM