As I write this it's officially the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Even though most of us have been in summer mode for close to a month today was the day when the season actually kicks in. As the weather gets hotter and the sun stays out longer, it seems that summer evokes different feelings depending on one's stage in life.
When most of the adults reading this were kids, summer has a magical feeling to it. School had let out and there was a time of relative freedom. For a several month period (two to three depending on where you live) a set in stone schedule wasn't necessary and anything could potentially happen during the times you weren't expected to be home.
For example, if you felt like swimming and could get to a place to do so with your friends and/or siblings, you pretty much could go. From going to the arcade to riding your bikes around the neighborhood, as long as you stayed out of trouble and had everything taken care of at home, the future seemed wide open. As one got older and their world broadened, more possibilities arose for you to conquer. Whether it was falling in love while on vacation or tackling something you wouldn't have done during the school year, in some cases anything was bound to happen.
For adults though, summer has a different feeling. It's hard to be excited about warm weather and long days when you have to get up early to go to work every day. In addition, the things one must undertake to survive are more concrete than the feeling of freedom summer often used to mean to a child. Yes, you might have the weekends (if you don't have to work) or maybe can plan some vacation time (if you're lucky) but a couple weeks really has little in common with the months of free time that you had as a child during this time of year. Maybe you can revisit the feeling vicariously if you have kids, but it will probably be shaded in comparison to what your summers were like.
Nowadays I wonder if today's young people could even have summers similar to the ones we experienced as kids. Children's lives these days are much more scheduled than they were in the 80s, much less the 70s. I understand to some extent why it's this way (working families have to make sure their kids are in a place that's safe) but I do fear that the adult generation has over-programmed their lives, thus potentially creating a generation so used to having decisions made for them by adults that they end up incapable of thinking outside the box, not just when it comes to working but to life in general.
While kids may have gone to camp years ago, it wasn't like today where a kid's summer could be filled with tutoring (if not attending a year round school) and other scheduled activities on top of going to camp. I know it theoretically keeps the kids in a safe environment but it just doesn't seem like they have the endless potential during the summer that seemed to happen when we were kids. Hopefully I'm wrong about this, but it does raise some concern in the long run.
As for the summer feeling itself, hopefully it will exist in one way or another as the seasons change in our lives. However, as we get older it won't be the same as when you're young and you feel anything might happen. Some of you might feel no desire to go back and relive your childhoods - I agree with you.
There are times though when we reminiscence about summer way back in the not so good old days and wonder if future generations are getting the same energy from the summers that we did. I hope they are somehow - even if circumstances require them to experience it in a different way then we did when we were their age. Only time will tell.
