Mary Angel
(7/2024) It is summertime, that moment the kids have been waiting for. They have been chomping at the bit for months, insisting they will not make it to the end of the school year. It is finally here! So, now what?
In January the tone is very solemn. The kids have come off a the great high known as Winter Break! The week in January is mediocre as they can tell all their friends about the gifts they got over the holidays. By the second week they are reminiscing about what it was like to sleep in all morning long. There were no alarms, no parents screaming you overslept, you’re going to be late for school. It was truly magical. By the end of January, they can’t even remember what it was like to be off school, to sleep in.
When February arrives, they are sure they will never make it to the end of the school year. "How can the days be moving so slow" and "Will summer ever get here", can be heard filling the hallways. I overheard a conversation that went something like this, "You’ve got this, it is only a few weeks until spring break". I am not sure the friend on the other end of the phone was convinced they were actually going to make it to spring break.
Spring break came and went, and although it is always enjoyed, it seems very short and very far from the end of the school year. In a flash, the misery begins again (complete with moaning). My idle attempts to remind them, that they only have two and a half months left until summer break, fell on deaf ears.
April and May are uneventful from a day off school standpoint. Each day seemed to be a little more of a grind for the kids, but those little troopers trudged through (a dash of sarcasm!). By the time June was on the horizon, they could taste their freedom. That feeling was always followed by a twinge of something small nagging at them. Once the seniors left the high school, everything became a little more lackadaisical.
That last week and a little bit seems to be more of a get ready for finals and relax time period. I heard more about what snack was needed for this class and that one, than homework and studying. After a countdown of days every day for the last 10 and a half of the school year, it was finally time. The excitement was in the air!
For that first week, or so, there were smoothie bowls with this friend, a sleepover with these girls, and a movie afternoon with that one. The fun train had left the station and was cruising along at a good clip. By the end of the second week, I started to hear moans of, "I’m bored!" To which I quickly replied, "I don’t want to hear it, find something to do." They weren’t often but give me a break. This is when I came to my senses and left a chore list. Whenever I got a call at work about boredom, or woe is me, bam let me give you something to do.
Don’t get me wrong, some of the items were more fun than others, like washing the car. Some of the chores would even garner a little spending money for the summer. Best of all it cut back on the number of "I’m Bored" phone calls at work. After the first call I helped her make a list of fun things to do throughout the summer when she is feeling extra bored. We also discussed embracing boredom, because when school starts back up, she might miss a little boredom.
As July approaches there are camps and sleepovers to look forward to. The first week of July there is a mission’s camp she will go on. She will be both excited and apprehensive at the thought of going somewhere new and meeting new people. The days leading up to the departure I will get a mix of "I am so excited" and "I don’t want to go". If history tells me anything she will return sad that it is all over, with memories to last a lifetime.
After the week of camp, the cycle will return to complaints of boredom and always looking for the next adventure. Towards the end of the month my daughter has a three-week camp that she will be working at, and it will run into August. She is once again excited and apprehensive. She has never done a camp this long and she does get home sick pretty easily. The good news is that she will come home on weekends.
This year there will be very little break between the last camp and our staycation, so no time to be bored. Staycation week is always a blast at my house. The kids love it, even the adult ones take off work to join us. This is the first year that one of my older ones has a work conflict for part of the week, so I will let you know how that goes. There is nothing but excitement surrounding staycation, from our family Olympics to a scavenger hunt, and theater to a little history. This is my favorite week of the summer!
After our staycation there will once again be a low point. Afterall, our staycation is a lot like a summer break from the boredom and the day-to-day activities. All of the kids will be a little melancholy at the thought of returning to work and chores (so will I for that matter). My daughter will try and squeeze in as much friend time and sleeping in as she can before school starts back up. She will schedule a few more sleepovers, some lunch dates, and occasionally she might even come to work and bring her old mom a treat!
With all of her complaining about being bored, as the new school year looms on the horizon, she will drag her feet trying to slow time down. Two weeks out she will talk about missing her friends that she only sees at school, and maybe even missing some teachers (but don’t tell her I said that). One week until school starts, she will commiserate over how quickly the summer flew by and how she didn’t get to do all the things she had planned. Suddenly it will be the night before her senior year and she will be a combination of sad, nauseous, and maybe 5% excited all rolled into one. I guess being bored is still better than being in school. This my friends is the summer cycle and all of my kids have gone through some form of it since the beginning of school. Hopefully they have learned, even just a tiny bit, to enjoy the good times while they last!
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