a.k.a. V.J.

Today is the Summer Solstice. For the record, I’m a fan.

When I was growing up, the third week of June was the end of our school year. I will always associate this time with lazy half-days of teachers filling time with anything but actual learning, the weight-off-my-chest feeling of relief after finishing up New York State Regents exams, the beginning of hot weather in CNY, and generally, the feeling of having a whole summer of freedom ahead. Simpler times.

Life is more complex now, but summer is still a winding-down time for me. I’ve been teaching part-time for the past ten years, so summers now feel like a vacation again. After all, I’m only working one job instead of juggling two or more. One drawback of working multiple jobs for most of the year is that there is always a nagging sense during moments of leisure that I should be attending to something important. It takes a while to shake that feeling, but six weeks removed from the end of the semester, I’m finally there. Now is my time to catch up on leisure reading, TV show binging, and taking the time to smell the roses (actually, in our yard that would be peonies), without feeling like a slacker.

One June tradition I remember from back in high school was everybody signing each other’s yearbooks. An end-of-year wish that was often written in the books was “Have a cool summer!” As was the case in 1984, I intend to do just that.