What most people declare as summertime is when school lets out and takes back in. That little pocket of time becomes what entire families plan out as their "summer." The problem is unlike when we were young, and school began around Labor Day; it now starts at the very beginning of August. And this is the hottest part of our summertime that is still in full swing according to the calendar.
As an educator for over two decades, I can agree that when school starts it is easy to wish that they pushed it back and shortened holidays. But then when the holidays hit there is the wish they would lengthen the holidays and push into June. And when that May date arrives every child and teacher is ready to hear the final bell announcing it is summer! Then the cycle starts again.
This is the first summer in many years I do not fall into this cycle, and it is a strange feeling. By now I would be rummaging through boxes and reorganizing for the new year. I would be pulling up all those endless videos we have to document that we watched to prepare for the next year safely. I would be planning out talks, power points, lessons, meetings. And what students know as their summer would be drawing to an end.
Neither do I fall into that group of parents gearing up for the end of summer and building out the next crazy packed ten months. I am not that stressed out mother trying to budget for school supplies and school clothes. Getting together all the sports equipment for the fall season. Lining out doctor and dentist appointments. Organizing car line schedules and filling in the calendar for Teacher Meet and Greets, Open Houses, and PTO meetings.
This is the first year in my entire adulthood I am not a parent or a teacher defining my "summer." I can go to the beach and will go to the beach in September. I can set a lunch date for Wednesday in August. I don't have to organize my office at home or decorate the classroom or meeting room. And I find myself actually waiting for some emotion. Is it extreme melancholy that summertime is about to end for the children? Is it elation that I am not having to face that stress of gearing up for a year? Neither.
It is like that strange feeling you get when you wake up with the feeling you had a weird dream, but you can't remember what it was. Or you are ten miles from home driving to vacation, and you keep thinking you forgot something, so you count your children and check for your purse. It is a touch of excitement for your grandchildren starting a new year of learning, a hint of relief life is going to remain pretty much the same. It is a mild relaxation that summertime will remain in full swing for months to come according to the thermostat. And it is a sweet little prayer for all those ladies still living those past years in some capacity as a mother or educator.
Roll out the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer or what is left of it. Bless the book bags at church in prayer for a safe and prosperous school year. And though "summertime" may still linger welcome the next season of life. Hello to being a grandma on the beach in September eating lunch on a Wednesday!
