What is it about summer that makes us feel we should be laughing in slow motion with our #squad, looking tan and youthful (despite those aging sun rays!), clinking glasses of rosé, and wearing the trendiest sunglasses—all while posting about it on Instagram?
Oh, the pressure that heat, sunshine, and blue sky invokes. For me, summer is the most anxiety-inducing season of the year. Or maybe it’s just in my head that everyone’s chanting, “Don’t pass up eating a lobster roll at every possible opportunity or you will die of regret or food poisoning from that tuna salad!”
OK, this pup makes me like summer just a little bit more.
I admit it: I resent (even fear) the stress summer brings upon my psyche each year. I feel pressured to constantly live it up, spend more dough than usual, wear white shorts, take selfies with ice cream, and be outside—cram in all that sh*t in the three months from late May to early September. It’s like there’s an hourglass in my heart, dropping aggressively sized chunks of sand every weekend with judgment: Did you make this most of this weekend? Tick tock, only X weekends left!
It’s just barely August, and I feel as if my personal summer experience is over already.
This weekend I plan to:
- Work.
- Um, do some more work on top of that.
- Run 17 highly unglamourous errands, from fixing my broken phone screen to calling online retailers who haven’t refunded my returns.
- Sweat on a subway platform, sweat on the subway, sweat on the 14-step walk to Starbucks.
- Lie in bed, contemplating my existence.
- Feel insane FOMO when my friend calls from a lake somewhere and I hear laughter in the background.
- Binge-watch Narcos.
Instagram-worthy? Definitely not. But true? Most certainly.
When the sun shines, reality doesn’t stop—even though it feels like it should.
When the sun shines, reality doesn’t stop—even though it feels like it should. Work happens. Sh*t happens. To-do lists don’t complete themselves. An email from our boss can make our heart sink in a snap, or a remark from a friend can leave us reeling for hours.
Maybe I’m a freak, but I like winter. I feel nostalgic for chilly days during the summer months. Not because I love the cold or the coats. Or even the holidays, because the majority of winter exists well after the Christmas fun.
What I love is the lack of pressure to live my life like Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream video. I like the snow and the silence. I like having the ability to sip my tea and power up my laptop and look out the window, knowing there’s not a whole lot I’m missing out on.
The irony of all this is I’m a life coach. I know my mindset and attitude are 100 percent up to me. But dammit, summer—you make it hard! Especially when there is so much work to do and I have no beach house. Now I take pleasure that September is just weeks away and I eagerly await the first falling leaf and the initial chill in the air that will greet me as I step outside.
Susie Moore is Greatist’s life coach columnist and a confidence coach in New York City. Her new book, What If It Does Work Out?, is available on Amazon now. Sign up for free weekly wellness tips on her website and check back every Tuesday for her latest No Regrets column!
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