Every year, I feel as if summer has slipped by without me achieving anything at all. At any given moment this summer, I was either lazing around with my feet kicked up on my leather chair or working my part-time job.
I grew up with my summers never being all that productive. I never went to summer camp, not once, and my form of entertainment was often wrestling with my sister for the TV remote so I could watch Gravity Falls.
Summer is often built up as the epitome of the year that everyone waits for. There is an expectation that you are supposed to take a trip or go to the lake, see friends or hit up your local pub every weekend and so on.
As I’m writing this article, I have “Summertime Sadness” by Lana Del Rey playing on repeat while eating from a huge bag of Lay’s chips. It may be fair to say my summer definitely did not live up to the expectations I had created in my head.
This idea of what a ‘successful’ summer should look like adds pressure on people’s plans. For me, my lack of money this summer became a difficult issue to overcome. My lack of motivation comes from burnout from the previous academic year and, even now, I still feel like I have yet to fully recover, despite having months to relax.
Though I am surrounded by family, friends and the opportunity to go out, I do everything I can to avoid leaving the house. I opt instead to be kept company by my cat and whatever piques my interest on Netflix.
Everywhere I look, everyone seems to be having fun. It feels almost comical when you have no school to distract you, and Instagram keeps feeding you endless images of beach houses and Italian getaways that everyone but you seems to be enjoying.
Television programs also help push this idea of summer that just feels so unrealistic. Much of these unrealistic versions of summer often stem from either cartoons or popular television shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty, which you might be living under a rock if you have not heard of by now.
The series showcases a love triangle, blending emotional intensity and a romantic fantasy. This show takes place in a huge summer beach house just off Cape Cod. The plot revolves around one girl and her romantic interest in two brothers.
This show depicts an ideal summer surrounded by parties, a huge beach house and young love. This TV show idealizes a version of summer that leaves me comparing my life to this made-up romance fantasy that simply may not exist in the real world.
I think these depictions of what summer is leave us feeling as though we’re doing summer wrong and ultimately make us believe that this unrealistic version of summer is somehow achievable for everybody when it’s not.
Summer is supposed to be, in my opinion, carefree and about doing what you want, not what everybody thinks you should be doing.
Perhaps it’s not knowing what the days of summer will look like that makes summer all worth it, the thrill of waking up and not knowing what you’re going to do for the day, instead of already having everything mapped out. Maybe it’s not knowing that makes summer worth it.
