Endless summer
My love letter to a season that felt too good to be true.
I still remember what I wore on the first day of my junior year of high school. 7 for All Mankind cut-off jean capris, a new boho top from Urban Outfitters, and my favorite Diesel slides. My memory isn’t always so photographic, but I spent a long time configuring that outfit in anticipation of starting an exciting new year.
Fall is not everyone’s new year, but it can feel that way. Summer builds and blossoms and burns through itself. We enjoy it with a sense of temporary wanderlust, its novelty wearing thin as we sweat through the hedonistic chaos and lack of structure. The seasons change as we’re about to say when. We yearn for the weather to break, for a new cycle to bring us routine and reprieve.
But not this time.
This summer could have gone on forever. I would’ve let it. I would’ve loved it.
As someone who swore off New Jersey many times before settling here six years ago, I was seduced—truly seduced—by the weather this summer. We may have just experienced the best weather on record. It never rained. The heat never became unbearable. We had an entire week in the low 80s in the middle of August. It was a dog day miracle.
People took full advantage of the outdoors in ways that felt more like a choice than the last few years of dining in plastic bubbles in the rain. This was not that. Our backyard chaises were for leisure, our walks for pleasure instead of survival. Day trips are no longer a consolation for something better; I think we just do a better job enjoying where we are now. It’s much more organic. Much more of a release.
Maybe this summer just felt great in comparison. We set expectations for last year’s Hot Girl Summer too high, trying for too much too soon without the infrastructure to support demand for more life out of our reservations, childcare, all goods and services, really. But this summer, we pulled most of it off. We had more parties, more barbecues, more plans that actually happened without disruption, and that confidence brought us to a better mental place. So many people deemed this their Summer of Yes and followed through on that promise, including us. My husband and I ate oysters on a rooftop in Montreal and had omakase on a side street in Manhattan. I had long lunches and listened to jazz and drank Sancerre all night at the neighbor’s without having dinner. Why not. Why the hell not.
I also noticed a major change in our kids. This was the first summer we had two children old enough to enjoy it. We didn’t have to curate our entire days around nap schedules, stroller walks, or one million complaints (there were still many complaints). The girls spent dinnertimes at the pool and hours on the beach. They rode rides and played mini golf past bedtime. We happen to have many friends with kids transitioning from preschool to either kindergarten or first grade, including our own daughter, Hazel, who started first grade this week after many years in private school. I knew it would be hard, which it’s proving to be, but summer felt like a gateway. She started as a little girl and came out a girl. So many kids we know began summer as one person and came out another. It’s awesome and sad and beautiful at the same time.
In May, I wrote about wanting to remember the last times more, instead of just letting them pass by unacknowledged. I think I put that into practice. On vacation at the Jersey Shore the last week in August, I watched the last sunset. I waded in the ocean. I took one last swim even though I didn’t want to go in. These moments will carry me through transitions that aren’t just the weather this year but more crucial: a new school for Hazel, a new career for me.
I gave my everything to this summer, and it gave me everything back.
The little things
We all have stress coping mechanisms, and as I’ve written before, crafting is one of mine. I’m not sure I’ve ever painted three pairs of kids’ sneakers in one week. That should tell you all you need to know about my mental state! Back to school is great, right? RIGHT?!
Also
Chris Pine memes are the caddy BS I need to smooth my brain out right now.
Your wins
This week’s for the parents of school-age kids. We did it, fam. We did it.
I have enjoyed reading a few of your articles this morning! I was drawn to this post as a summer lover myself. I’m glad yours was a good one! I relate to having kids just now old enough for new types of summer fun.