Learning What It's Like To Be An Adult During The Summer

I've been "adulting" for three summers now. What I mean when I say adulting during the summer is, working eight hours a day, five days a week, from June-September. I'm sure you can empathize with my shell shock over this, since we were born and bred with 2.5 months summer vacation and glorious freedom from ages zero to 18 (and even beyond that if you were lucky), then boom, it's gone.

Come May, I feel like I am devising some extreme master plan just to make the most of my summer months as an adult. Picture it: large chart paper taped on my living room walls with push pins and string to connect the dots, a variation of coloured sticky notes with illegible scribbles, pictures of fun things, and my face superimposed on someone riding a roller coaster. 

You'd think it would get easier and we'd start to adjust to our new reality, but I am starting to realize through talking with friends that maybe it won't ever get easier.

However, sometimes once we acknowledge and accept things, we can move on. So here I am, acknowledging and accepting.. and bringing you along with me to do the same.

Here is what summer as an adult is like, in a nutshell:

We are constantly indoors

Sometimes, I don't really know what the weather is, which is awkward given that, for some reason, people's go to 'small talk' in the office is "Wow! It's a hot one out there!" and I'm like, Sir I travel here by underground tunnel just as the sun is rising and I don't step foot outside until punch-out time.

Free time is but an illusion

Reality check! The summer is comprised of approximately 13 weekends, let me break it down: Fridays barely count because work takes up the majority of the day, and on Sundays we're slaves to the cleaning and meal prep Gods; don't you forget it. That leaves Saturdays. 13 full days that we must maximize.

Double-booking is a pandemic

On that note, our 13 Saturdays fill up FAST and it is awful how often we commit to plans, only to un-commit because we forgot we've already committed to something else.  

..But yet, nothing really gets accomplished

All this talk of plans and jam-packed weekends, but why does it feel like it's mid-July and all we've managed to do is take the ferry to Ward's Island to illegally drink on the beach? 

You're not sure what to wear anymore

Sun dresses and Old-Navy flip flops have been swapped with shift dresses (in a sometimes questionable length) and flat strappy sandals that will only pass if your feet will be hiding under your desk for the day. 

Nobody is ever in the same place at the same time

We envision our summers spent with a group of our closest friends yelling across the dock "Hey Marlee, want another cold one!?" *walks over and pats Marlee on the shoulder, hands her a Smirnoff Ice, and makes her do that weird kneeling on one knee thing that people do when they drink Smirnoff Ice*

But in reality, we are lucky to round everyone up in one place at one time. In the winter it's easy because everyone is inside Netflixing until summoned from their lair.

You would even settle for a bad tan-line

We are so sun deprived that you can put your arm up to the fluorescent office light and see through it. 

You have that friend that appears to have zero responsibilities

Checking social media during weekdays can be baffling. We all have a friend who, I can only assume, makes money by living their best Gelato life everyday. The one that posts their adventures to the beach, cottage, patios, and concerts on a Tuesday afternoon. How are you doing that? Can you teach us?

Making after-work plans sounds painful

It only takes one time for us to think it's possible to go out after work and be okay the next day. We learn that in early June, and from that point on we are in bed by 10pm for the rest of the summer. 

To all my newly-adulting friends, find solace in knowing you are not suffering alone this summer. We need to band together during this time of distress, and encourage each other to make the most of our summer months (sooo dramatic).  

In order to end this on a high note, here are some quick (almost) effortless things that can give you that youthful summer feel:

• Hit up an ice cream truck

• Go swimming at night

• Go makeup free 

• Eat s'mores (if you can't get to a bonfire, make them in the oven - I've done it okay)

• Get your toes in the sand

• Read a book outside

• Play catch, shoot some hoops, or organize a baseball game (for the ambitious!)

• Go to a drive-in

Lynn