Summer's End

Tomorrow both the husband and the boy are back to school.  I've been back at work for the past two weeks, but I feel their angst. Zane will put on his long blue pants and his brand new white school uniform shirt.  He has a brand new backpack that looks like a character from Minecraft, and we found the library books that the boy swore he had returned during the last school year.  He's already met his teacher, and he knows where his classroom is.  Larry will be attending teacher meetings, something that he loathes, and moving into a brand new classroom.  Zane is not happy about going back to school, of course.  Neither is his father.  But they'll both suck it up and walk out the door with me tomorrow, their heads hanging and their hearts heavy. Dirges will be sung. Tissues will likely be needed.

Summer is over for the men in the house. 

I know that the actual official end of summer is not here yet, but for me summer ends when school/work starts. School, and work, are all about schedules.  School is about following directions and following schedules. School is about remaining seated while the teacher is talking, raising your hand to answer a question, and always remembering to write your name at the top of your paper. 

Work is about following directions and schedules, emailing coworkers, making phone calls, sitting in meetings, and writing To-Do lists that you will immediately misplace.  Work is looking over folders until you can't see straight, while completing an Excel spreadsheet with faulty cells that nobody seems to know how to fix. 

Summer is not any of those things. 

Summer is about staying up late to see the stars move across the sky.  It's sleeping late because you can.  It's eating sticky, juicy things like watermelon, and then jumping into the nearest body of water to clean up.  Summer is heading to the beach for the day whenever you feel like it.  It's about water balloon fights in the back yard, and Nerf wars in the house.  Summer is about family vacations and barbecues and the gloriousness of having no schedule at all. 

Summer is about floating along on the wind, to what ever adventure awaits, even if that adventure is a nap in a hammock under a shady tree.

We live in a country where kids get their summers off.  I am glad for that.  We tend to overschedule ourselves, and some of us extend that habit to our children, with dance camps, swimming lessons, and the like.  For some of us, not one second of the day is unoccupied, and that's a shame. Children need down time, and so do adults.   Time to relax, recover, and rejuvenate, so we can find our enthusiasm for the next obstacle in front of us.  I think that Zane and his father had a great summer, and are ready to face the school year. 

Still, we are all sorry to see summer end.