You remember these essays when you started back to school. Every teacher did them: “Please write a 500 word essay on ‘What I Did on My Summer Vacation’, due Monday.” (Because, let’s face it, all of our teachers wanted that first essay due the Monday after the first week of school started, just to remind us the weekends were no longer ours). We’d collectively whine and bemoan to our teacher’s disgust, as she’d continue with the rest of the class’ lessons for the the period. She would remain resolute. The report would remain in effect and thus would begin a long year of teacher-student struggles within the classroom. The bell would finally ring, releasing us of our required school bonds and off we’d set, faces forlorn, dreaming for the past nine weeks back as we sulk off to our bedrooms. We’d plop down the notebook and start the arduous task of adding flourish to our summer activities, because Susie Johnson’s always-so-amazing-trips to Disney World and Europe would undoubtedly cause our playing in the creek behind the house to pale in comparison. These were the summers we remembered forever. The same thing, every year and we didn’t need money to do anything... just our imagination, neighborhood friends, sweltering summers and the somewhat frequent prayers for rain to save us from the heat.
Now, fast forward to the present and take a look around. It seems as if we’re past the age of innocence at age three. People expect more than just a sweaty nine weeks off from school. They want every day packed with something to do all in the luxury of air conditioning. They wish to be entertained and they demand to have someone cater to their every whim at any hour of the night. We’ve become entirely too focused on needing the bigger and better and have forgotten the simple joys of sitting outside and watching the fireflies in the warm, windless twilight. Where has the self-made entertainment gone? Where are the memorable romps through the sprinkler system, the fireside campouts and the races down the block to the ice cream man? I miss playing pirates in the back yard and randomly spraying friends with the hose as “mist” from the ocean. I miss the long car rides and the repetitive two or three tapes we’d listen to (really? tapes... yes, tapes) as we drove to see family. We’ve come to expect someone else take care of our desires, and we’ve forgotten how to entertain ourselves with our own imagination. Read books, play outdoors (or indoors if it’s too hot, for that matter), find the nearest place to swim and make your own summer amazing without fancy water slides and amusement parks or being holed up inside watching tv because we’re too impossibly bored because no one will do all the work for us to have fun during the hottest few months of the year.
What did I do on my summer vacation? I did nothing interesting (except find you readers some awesome tees this year)... and loved it. I’m not about to add any flourish to it. I hope you did too.
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