Weisel: What did you do this summer? Consider writing it down

Elementary school was a simpler time. During the school year, we had nothing to look forward to…Elementary school was a simpler time. During the school year, we had nothing to look forward to except summer, a time when our days could be filled with bike rides and ice cream trucks and soccer leagues. Maybe for a week or two we’d go on vacation with our families to places like Gettysburg or Cape May, and then the next thing we’d know we’d be back to school in the fall.

Inevitably, within the first week back to school, our new teachers would make us write the one essay we wrote every year: “What I Did This Summer.” And as we wrote those essays, we took a long, comprehensive look at how the fun that made up our summer days relaxed us and prepared us for the new year. So why don’t we write those essays anymore? What would change if we did?

I’m going to argue that a revival of the summer essay would better prepare students to return to school in the fall semester, even if we are long out of elementary school, so that we can take time for self-reflection.

The first reason we need to set apart time for self-reflection is to slow ourselves down. Gone are the days of spending our summers running around the neighborhood chasing our neighbor’s dog for hours on end. Instead, the pressures of summer jobs and internships plague us, so we’re constantly pushing ourselves to do more. I have worked at least two jobs during each of the past three summers, and I’ve barely had time for myself. It’s easy to get caught up in everything you have to do and forget the meaning behind the experiences.

When we take time to sit down and write about the things that we’ve done and what we’ve learned from them, we allow ourselves a chance to sit back, relax and enjoy the learning process. Then we gain a better appreciation of how hard we worked or what our work has meant. Maybe you worked a job that you really hated, but didn’t notice because you were too busy to realize you didn’t like what you were doing. Or maybe it was the opposite: you loved your work but got caught up in how much there was to do.

Last summer I worked three jobs, and while I was working I didn’t think the tasks held much significance for me. I liked one over the other two, but not so noticeably during the summer. Now when I think back to that summer, I realize that I really disliked one of my jobs and loved another, and these realizations changed the course of my career path. Only after taking time to reflect did I recognize the things that I learned from my summer jobs.

But summer isn’t just about work. It’s also a time for vacation and spending time with friends and family. The other reason we need to take time for a self-reflective essay is to soak in the calming energy that graced our summers — even if it was sparse. For some reason, in the summer, we are much more willing to spend an extra night out with our friends to lie in the grass and stargaze. When we’re in school, the stress of constant homework can weigh down our evenings and even our weekends. We forget what it was like in the summer to sacrifice a couple of hours of sleep for the sake of a fun night with friends.

If we make the effort to reflect on the time we spent relaxing over the summer, we can recognize that it was good for our minds, bodies and souls to take time off even when it meant a little bit of sacrifice. If we record our memories from summer nights we have something to go back to when we’re feeling the stress of our daily lives and remember the fresh scent of the summer. We can let the memory of summer sink deep into our skin and remind us at the beginning of the school year that whenever we get faced with huge workloads or time-consuming jobs, we know that there is another summer coming.

Even though it might seem juvenile, taking time to sit down and write an essay simply titled “What I Did This Summer” can give us a chance to reflect, slow down and remember the feel of summer. When we take the time to do these things, we are better prepared for the fall and the beginning of a new school year.

Contact Elizabeth at eaw62@pitt.edu.