Today, as is usually the case on most summer mornings, it took me a little time to remember what day of the week it was when I woke up, because for a teacher in the summer the days of the week don’t matter much and you lose track after awhile. When the dots finally connected, I realized it was the last Friday of summer vacation. Yes, we still get next Friday off at the end of our 4-day workshop week, and we’ll have Labor Day off as well for a nice long weekend, but those first four days back are physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually draining enough to say that once the collective school staff has officially reported for duty, summer vacation has definitively come to an end.
This time of year can be something of a glass half empty / glass half full test for teachers, depending on how they feel about getting back to work (and I just noticed which glass I listed first). I think I can speak for most teachers in saying we have a foot in both camps, looking ahead to the new school year with a complex set of emotions ranging from optimistic thrill to quiet dread. I personally have many changes coming to my job this year and several of them are promising, but I also know there will be things eventually coming along that.... well, I love my job and I'm grateful I get to do it, but sometimes you just have to remember there’s a paycheck involved and show up and do the best you can. I’d imagine the same could be said about practically any job, but somehow, and I really don’t think I’m overstating this, the stakes just seem higher when the lives and security and futures of kids are involved. Which greatly adds to the stress, and makes summer vacation all the more difficult to leave behind.
The change doesn’t really come all at once, though. We have our warning signs. The retail world raises the first red flag in mid-to-late July when the seasonal merchandise of summer disappears and is immediately replaced with Back to School. Soon after the Sunday paper is filled with circulars advertising incredible deals on supplies (which reminds me I have some errands to run this afternoon), and then the television ads appear. All of this can only be ignored for so long before you crack and make what you fully intend to be just a tentative pass through the school supplies section, and find yourself walking out of Target with three full bags and a supernaturally long receipt.
By the time August rolls in, the first, very, very early leaves begin appearing on the ground. They don’t deserve more than a derisive eye roll because we all know the serious foliage dump is still several weeks away, but it’s hard not to look at these little bits of yellow on the ground and think, “Seriously? You couldn’t have tried to hold out a little longer? You’re not helping anybody.” And here in Minnesota August also means the State Fair, which runs right up to the first day of school and could not be a bigger symbolic end to the summer. Of course the humidity always manages to get completely out of control for at least a few days of the fair, which is awful timing for two reasons: 1) If you go to the fair and spend the day in close proximity with another hundred-thousand people, you don’t want the air to hang on to every passing smell, and 2) it’s also during this time when teachers are called back to work, and in my case humidity does not go over so well in a brick school constructed in the 1950s that stubbornly goes forward without air conditioning.
During times of change like this my tendency to overthink rears its head, and I’ll pause to reflect on the things. Truth be told, I haven’t known a life without some kind of summer vacation since the year I finished kindergarten, so what happens during the summer has often been a very singular chunk of life for me. As for this year, I’m going to list a few of the highlights, more for my own future reference than anything else. But hey, if anything here stirs your curiosity, ask me about it or go check it out for yourself.
Favorite Netflix TV show: Right now I’d have to say the BBC version of “Sherlock,” which was awesome. Although in the past week or so I’ve almost worked my way through the first season of “Louie,” which is also pretty great. Apples and oranges here, but "Sherlock" probably takes the top spot.
Favorite TV Show: TV was largely awful this summer. But even though it started off a little slowly, I really got into “The Strain.” Honorable mention to “Under the Dome,” which I’m still watching just because I want to see what ridiculous thing they come up with next.
Favorite Movie: “Guardians of the Galaxy,” hands down. Best summer movie since “The Avengers,” and if you know me well you know that’s a statement.
Favorite Book: “High as the Horses’ Bridles” by Scott Cheshire. Now, let me be clear: This is NOT anything like the kind of John Sandford crime story page-turner I might typically burn through over a summer weekend. This is literature as art. It’s a challenging and thought-provoking novel about religion and marriage and family that took me twice as long to read as it should have because there were so many lines and passages I would pause to reread and try to deconstruct. And I’m not just saying this because -- full disclosure -- Scott and I share an agent. It’s really a monumental piece of work.
Favorite Album: Coming in as a last-minute dark horse is “Get Hurt” by The Gaslight Anthem. I had an earlier album of theirs I wasn’t entirely impressed with, and I’m very happy I gave them a second chance. It’s a strong rock album that’s beautiful and painful at the same time, and by my third play through parts of it already had me broken in half.
Favorite Concert: Gotta go with The Hold Steady, even though it was much louder than it needed to be. Seeing a band I’ve loved for years for the first time and getting to hear them play so many of my highlight songs was big.
Favorite Game: The Skyrim Legendary Edition. I make no apologies for this.
Favorite Vacation Spot: Wisconsin. Between Ashland, Juneau, Madison, Turtle Lake, and Chippewa Falls, I probably spent a cumulative week in the land of the cheeseheads. The best part of every stop was being surrounded by my exceptionally large and close extended family, which has always been a defining part of my summer.
Favorite Silver Lining: How I escaped injury after getting rear-ended hard enough to necessitate the incredible dollar amount of repairs my car went though I have no idea, but I’m pretty darn grateful all the same.
Favorite New Thing About Summer: To circle back to the school year starting, I joked some in the spring about how having an agent now meant I’d I have to work hard at my second job during the summer. But that was exactly what happened, and it was awesome. To get that first taste of that “teach during the school year and write books full-time in the summer” life plan I sarcastically offered my father back in college bordered on the surreal. In the end it meant I wound up with only about three weeks of the same kind of summer vacation I’m used to having. But that could not have been any better.
And now I've got the rest of my last Friday off to take in....
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