I enjoy summer. Yet there is inevitably a mid-point
where I begin to freak out about how fast time seems to go, how quick summer
wraps up… and this midpoint is usually in July. It’s at this time, when there
is still a full month or more of sunny days to enjoy, that I begin to miss
summer while she’s still here. It’s the equivalent of missing a person who is
sitting across the table from you right now.
And, yet, this lament makes perfect sense to me. Once
the Fourth of July wraps up, retail establishments stock their end-caps and
seasonal aisles with back to school deals. Television commercials begin rolling
out advertising about nabbing the hottest trends for fall. A trip into Macy’s
will reveal fall jackets, cute boots, and maybe even a wooly scarf or two. The
tents, BBQs, and pool toys are now on sale. These are items of nostalgia, they
say, with their red clearance stickers crying out against the more necessary,
or more timely, oversized backpacks and spiral notebooks.
It doesn’t help that this past week has featured
temperatures more suited to fall. I feel as though, at any moment, a gang of
costumed children will walk up to the house and demand treats. I have indeed
been tricked. It feels like fall, but it shouldn’t.
I enjoy back-to-school shopping as much as the
next writer. It’s a time of new pens, notepads, binder clips, and more. The
panic, then, is not about fall approaching. It is about summer’s departure. It is
a necessary reminder that time is short, the long days and well-lit evenings
will soon come to an end. It is a reminder that there is still time to play, if
I take notice.
