To most people, summer means the tasting notes of freshly grown farm goods, sunsets that give the sky the colors of cotton candy ice cream, bustling street carnivals under the warm glow of string LED's, and stimulating trips to the links with friends.
Every season has its ups and downs, but once upon a time summer was the one season you couldn't criticize. It's three months off from school, with no homework, no teachers, no annoying classmates. Who could possibly complain about that?
For most of us, however, once grade school is over summer becomes just another season. The death of summer vacation is a sad checkpoint in the transition to adulthood, which might explain why a slightly higher number of American adults picked spring over summer as their favorite season.
Personally, summer hasn't just become another three month period of the year: it's now my least favorite. I may enjoy a calming, sunset bike ride through Pultneyville or a boat ride around Sodus Bay that concludes with dinner at Skipper's Landing, but compared to the other three seasons summer is just a bit lacking.
Before teachers or anyone under the age of 18 threatens to break my kneecaps, please hear out my main reasons that summer is now my least favorite season:
1. It's Too Hot
When it's cold out, all you need to do is add an extra layer of clothing and presto: you're protected against the elements. The worst that can happen is you bundle up too much, and look like Randy from Christmas Story.
Cooling off requires you to do the opposite. You can strip down to your wifebeater and short-shorts...but what happens when that isn't enough? Indecent exposure is a misdemeanor in New York, punishable for up to 15 days of jail time. And it may not be against the law, but I really don't need to see your undergarments.
You can go to ballgames and spend half the price of admission on Powerade alone, and you'll still be overheated. A gross layer of sticky sweat will cling to your skin, and there ain't enough Bath & Body Works in the world to stave off the smell.
My point is, it's easier to get warm than it is to cool off. Yeah, being too cold is dangerous, but so is being too hot. It means dehydration, fatigue, and can even lead to heat exhaustion, a potentially life-threatening condition if left untreated. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 1,300 deaths a year can be attributed to extreme heat.
So, being hot is harder to treat and it could potentially lead to life-threatening conditions? To the Arctic, it is.
2. Sunblock, Bug Block, Tick Block...
Thankfully, there are tools in place to prevent us from grappling with the negative effects of excess heat and sunlight. Thing is, that sunblock stuff smells kinda funky, and you have to cover everything with it.
And if the sun and heat don't get you, the insects certainly will. Mosquitoes, ants, yellow jackets, beetles, flies...it's like an annoying, buzzing paparazzi greeting you the instant you walk outside.
More subtle, and arguably more dangerous, are ticks. They crawl up your skin, bore in, and suck your blood, and if that isn't annoying enough, they can give you Lyme Disease. Your skin will swell, you'll be fatigued for hours on end, and if you're really unlucky, the lining of your brain will become inflamed. An article in The Nation claims that the number of new cases of Lyme Disease has risen to 476,000 a year.
Go outside, they say. It's nice out, they say. Having to cover yourself in gross chemicals to do it? Yeah, you can miss me with that.
3. Bad for Mental Health
Alright, you say. Now you're being ridiculous. How can the sun, our main source of vitamin D and the source for so many beautiful sunrises and sunsets, be bad for your mental health?
You'd be surprised. For some of us, including myself, Summer Anxiety is a form of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) that can cause symptoms of anxiety and depression. It's believed that too much sunlight can throw off our circadian rhythm, making it difficult to get as much sleep as we need to.
If you're struggling with Summer SAD, the good news is it's still manageable like other forms of SAD. Sticking to structure and routine, scheduling some downtime out of the sun, and seeking therapy can help you.
4. Travel is a Bigger Hassle
With the release of our nation's children for summer vacation, family trips become much more common in the summer months. This means clogged interstate highways, overbooked flights, and screaming children at the back of the plane.
It's much harder to plan road trips and arrival times when traffic congestion can break out at any time. Congestion is very difficult to predict. All it takes is one crash or one big truck trying to get back on the highway for a half-hour to be added onto your trip.
Flying means avoiding the headache of long road trips, but it's kinda like being served a crap sandwich with a little salt, rather than raw. If you haven't seen my last article (which you can read here), you may not know that air travel has never been so chaotic, as pent-up demand has overwhelmed an industry that was forced to cut back significantly due to Covid-19. This has meant hundreds, perhaps thousands, of flight delays, cancellations, and ruined vacations. Add higher fares between the months of June and August to take advantage of demand, and your wallet will be hurting too.
It's much easier to travel in the fall and spring months, when the kiddies are still in school.
5. Few Sports Worth Watching
Winter might be cold and dreary, but it's also peak sports season: postseason football, college basketball, and hockey. The Royal Rumble, the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, NCAA Conference Championships, and the opening rounds of March Madness all take place in the winter months.
Once you hit late June, sports programming dries up. Okay, there's a weekly NASCAR race and maybe some golf, but what else? The Olympics? Only happens every four years. The MLB? Snore. Preseason football? Meh... There's no college or even high school sports to follow.
Sorry, baseball fans. I might be the biggest softball fan this far north of the Mason-Dixon line, but that doesn't mean I enjoy sitting through nine innings of a pitcher's duel in sweltering weather.
6. It Doesn't Mean What it Used To
I touched on this at the beginning of the article. Summer used to mean time off from school, playing Game Boy and reading Goosebumps in the oak tree behind my house, and biking all day around town with my friends.
Now, it means sitting in a cubicle or home office like every other season, only the weather is better, essentially taunting you for having to staying inside. Summer is a kid's season, and when you're an adult, that fact can be very isolating.
No comments:
Post a Comment