So, it is with great sadness and a massive amount of hate that I have begun to say goodbye to summer this year. But it has me thinking. The end of summer is very much like the beginning of the new year. The holidays are over, and it’s time to look forward, make plans and generally get your life together. It makes you think. Makes you wistful. Makes you anxious. Makes you strategize.
The end of summer has me like …
Feminist
When I look back on my summer pics, I’m reminded that as a grown ass woman, I made fashion choices that made me feel powerful.
Summer hasn’t always been my favorite season. There was this strange time in my younger years where I enjoyed not wearing shorts and backless shirts and showing off my skin. I’m not sure why I was like that in my late teens and early twenties (I’m going to guess it was evangelical peer pressure not to appear to be a total slore), but I got over that as soon as I had daughters.
Fully entrenched in my 30’s, I have adopted the belief that my modesty is not relegated by your fickle cultural standards. I’ll bleach my hair, I’ll go braless, I’ll wear an actual bikini, I’ll wear shorts that don’t meet the fingertip standard. I’ll be comfortable in the heat and humidity.
In any other season, you may not notice how I stick it to fundamentalist beliefs about modesty because being cold is the worst, and covering up is a survival tactic. So goodbye, sexy summer outfits. I will miss you and my bare shoulders.
Organized
Nothing makes me happier than a new planner and a fistful of dark blue Papermate Profile Pens (and no, this is not a sponsored post). How many adorable forest creature spiral notebooks have you purchased in the last month from the Back to School section at Target? (Only acceptable answer: at least 3). If you don’t love new school supplies, I don’t think I can know you.
Planner manufacturers understand this. It’s why brand new planners start in August of each year. I mean, the world is not populated by teachers and students only. The majority of the work force is out there every day, all year long. But it’s the end of summer that sparks our organizational brains into hyper drive.
I spent the last week of July and the first week of August feverishly cleaning my house, organizing my files, filling out little squares in my new planner and making sure we all had doctor’s and dental appointments lined up before our health insurance premiums weren’t met.
Dealing
The end of the summer is notoriously the time when I overachieve. I’m talking deals. Dates. Coveted spots in exclusive classes and internships. Auditions. Jobs. Ryan. All things I’ve nailed down at the end of summers over the years. I just get jacked up by the freshness of starting over, I guess.
This year, my deals are super personal. They are goals I’ve been meaning to nail down for myself for a long time. But they’re happening.
Reading
It’s a theme. But I am getting that reading that I meant to get done all summer DONED right now.
Maybe it’s because we’ve started Boozy Book Club back up again, and I love it so much that I want to make sure everything we read is awesome. Maybe it’s because I’m my kids’ teacher, and I like to read everything I assign to them way ahead of time (as well as a ton of stuff I don’t assign just so I can make sure I am smarter than their curricula requires me to be).
Whatever the reason, I am kicking it in the reading department as fall approaches. Romances, biographies, YA, new books, old books, history books. I’m my own personal Dewey Decimal system.
So … see ya, summer. I thought this post was gonna be all sadness. Like gifs of me facedown in the sand with an empty margarita glass. But it seems like even though summer is ending, I am ready and willing to kick autumn’s ass. What about you?
How do you feel about the end of summer this year? What is your favorite season? Do you hate boots and leggings as much as I do?
