Who Asked? // Do we really get a summer vacation?

As I watch cold rain splatter my window, I can’t help but long for summer. Clear skies and warm days. I want to go biking in the woods and watch the sunset while trying not to let chocolate ice cream dribble off a waffle cone and down my wrist. I want to lather myself up in sunscreen and lay out with a cold fizzy drink. I want to go to the beach and hear the salty waves crashing on the surf while I bite into my favorite Jersey Shore pizza slice. 

But summers now seem a far cry from that idealized picture. As we enter our twenties, everyone’s worried about getting internships and jobs, intent on not falling behind. If you don’t have five side hustles lined up over break, then you might as well be destined for homelessness post-grad. And this isn’t all social expectation. We have real responsibilities now, real futures to think about and real college debts looming. Summer has become an opportunity to boost our resumes and strengthen our savings rather than waste lazy days drinking in the sunshine. 

Plus, summer break means not seeing our college friends, possibly for months. Like, what do you mean my boyfriend is going to be on the other side of the state? How are we supposed to go for hikes and watch drive-in movies? Hell, I’m not even sure how much I’ll see my high school friends at home, as we are busy ourselves with jobs and commitments. I used to see summer as a time for limitless hangouts, but now it’s starting to feel lonelier than ever. 

Finally, with the uptick in technology consumption, we seem doomed to spend any precious free time in the next couple of months bedrotting with our eyes glued to a screen. And even if you have big plans to stay active, life can get in the way. Last spring, I went on and on about how much I was going to move over the summer. I was going to go for walks, play tennis, maybe even start swimming again. And then I got bronchitis and spent most of the summer trying to go a whole hour without coughing. 

So, with all of these factors in play and the vision of a perfect summer getting blurrier and blurrier, do we really even get a summer vacation at all? I hear my classmates talk about how they want to enjoy these last couple of breaks before being funneled into the eternal workforce, but have our last warm months of respite already been taken out from under our noses? 

To some degree, yes. I’m not going to sit here and tell you to just follow your joy and whimsy instead of working to make money or get experience. That just simply isn’t viable for most of us. It’s just true that we aren’t six-year-olds anymore, where our biggest summer concerns were reading “Flat Stanley,” going to playground camp and playing with our Barbies and Legos.  

But does this mean all is lost?

I think we need to make a real, concerted effort to still find moments of joy and excitement this summer, even if we’re busy with more grown-up commitments. Make time every day to feel the sun on your face, if only for five minutes. Set time limits on your screen time. Force yourself to go outside even if you don’t have to. Schedule trips to visit college friends. Spend time with your hometown buddies, even if it’s just for a couple hours. 

Sure, gone are the days when our parents would plan fun summer activities for us. Gone are the days when we’d spend months and months on end with nothing to do. But just because the perfect summer won’t fall into our laps doesn’t mean we can’t put in the effort to enjoy our time. I suggest writing a bucket list, and even if you don’t finish half of what you put down, you’ll at least have somewhere to turn other than your phone. 

I know a big problem for people when it comes to summer enjoyment is money. We can’t all afford to take tons of trips or go to fun restaurants every day. Luckily, there’s plenty to do at very little cost, if any. Go for a hike at your favorite local park or scrounge for some chalk in the back of your garage and draw on your driveway. Join your local library’s summer reading program. Buy the cheapest popsicles you can find and sit on the pavement and reconnect with your childhood self.
Maybe part of the reason that our summers don’t seem fun anymore is because we’ve decided there are grown-up ways that we should have fun. We should be doing things, going places, and spending money. The little joys that used to color our childhoods have become silly or immature. To bring back the excitement of summer, we have to make space in our lives for tiny moments to reconnect with our younger selves. 

Essentially, we don’t get a summer vacation anymore — it isn’t being handed to us. But nothing is stopping us from making one ourselves, even if it looks a little different than it used to.