You planned it all out. You were going to take a nice trip somewhere exotic. You were going to go to all of the clubs and concerts. You were going to fall in love or spend all the time you had with that special someone. Yet you’re here at San Diego State for summer classes.
I envy you. You have something to do. You have faces to see and people to meet. The most exciting part of my summer has been watching old ladies win the showcase in “The Price is Right” and Cory and Topanga’s wedding in “Boy Meets World.” I had plans for the summer too, you know?
I was supposed to get a job and to hang out with my friends at all sorts of places, eat a lot of burritos with my best friend as our tradition states or go to the beach just once. But instead, I’m home. Like you, reading this column (possibly in the middle of your statistics or chemistry class because your teacher is too boring for you to really pay attention), I’ve realized summer can be a burden.
If you don’t have the right resources or friends, your summer can be reduced to the most boring three months of the year, even though, in November, you and I will probably be complaining about how much fun summer was and how much we miss it. There’s a lot of time in our hands and if we don’t know how to use it, it’s hard to really enjoy.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I know there are quite a few of you who have every second of every day of the week occupied. I know it’s a little too late, but this column is not for you. You’re not in a summer rut like me, and some of the other readers. Look around you: these people are not that hard to spot. Feel free to put the paper down, or switch to the features section, they always have something interesting to write about.
For those of you still with me, it’s hard to get out of a summer rut when you don’t even know how you got in it. For the first couple of days you were excited because you actually got a full night’s sleep or because you were able to watch TV shows you didn’t regularly get to watch. But two weeks in, you realize you’ve seen the same episode millions of times or that your body had too much sleep and doesn’t really need much more of it. Even worse, you can’t go around the city because your trolley pass expired at the end of May (I am, with a bit of shame, pointing my thumbs at myself and saying “This guy!”). It’s hard to do new things, but at one point we have to ask ourselves, “Why the hell not?”
I mean, we’re young college students. Why not find a way to get to the beach? Why not try
to win tickets to a concert? Or why not simply go to the park to lie down on the grass and think about your place in this great circle of life? Summer is, and always will be what we make of it. If we make it a burden, it’s going to be long and boring.
If we want to make it exciting, we can. We’ve worked too hard all year not to go out and do something different. It’s time we make some changes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch Shawn Hunter cry because he knows things won’t be the same with his best friend. I love summer.
