These days, my favorite time of the year is May. University classes finish in early May. My semester is over by the middle of the month. My children still have a few weeks of school left.
Yes, I still set my alarm. Wake up early, get the kids to school, go for a run, and then there are five or six beautiful hours of peace. The morning becomes whatever it becomes.
Sometimes my wife Katie and I have lunch together. Grab a coffee before we get the boys from school. I’m still mostly avoiding caffeine, but I’ve been treating myself to one or two chai teas a week. More like six or seven. After coffee, we spend the evening with our children. Play catch with the football in the backyard. Bounce on the trampoline. Play video games. Life is easy.
In June, once school gets out for the boys, there’s more work to do. Need to keep the kids occupied. And then I’m bracing for the end of August and another school year. But not in May. No, May is easy. Just open space.
***
Summer vacation is a reoccurring theme for me. I’ll be on year 21 as an educator in the fall. So that’s 20 summer breaks as an adult. Not to mention all those from my childhood. June, July, and August have always been, for me, a respite from institutions. From having to be where school tells me to be.
Lately, I’ve been fantasizing about previous summer breaks. Daydreaming. In my twenties, when I lived in my bachelor’s apartment in Minneapolis, summer break was solitude. My window air conditioner kept the place at about 60 degrees. I’d sleep in late, go for a run to the lakes on the Greenway, get a coffee from the Dunn Brothers down the street, and return to my apartment. Lay in my bed and play Playstation 2. Final Fantasy 12. Read books. Write fiction. Eventually, I’d get bored and see what my friends were up to. Go out and get a beer. Or keep to myself and pick up food from the Uptown Diner or Sawatdee. Life was lonely, sure, but things were simple. Easy.
Later, after I bought a house in Northeast Minneapolis, Katie and I were free to sleep in. Explore the restaurants in the Twin Cities. Go to a brewery and have a few drinks. Long evenings and late mornings. Blissful laziness.
These are only distant impressions. I don’t really remember all the details of how I spent my summer vacations. But the feeling of easiness remains. The importance of disconnecting with reality. The hectic, reactive life I live as a teacher gives way to the absolute freedom of summer break.
Glory, glory.
***
I have more responsibilities now than ever before. And summer vacation as a professor is not the same as it is for a high school teacher. Professors have to attend to research over the break. Publish or perish. And there are all sorts of little things I’m responsible for even though, technically, I’m on a nine-month contract. Doesn’t feel like a nine-month contract. Sometimes it feels like a fifteen-month contract.
Still, May is the easiest month. And June and July are slower too. I can turn my alarm off once the boys finish school in early June. Sleep in a little bit. This forty-four-year-old body can’t sleep in like it used to. But maybe I’ll make it to 7:30 or, God forbid, 8:00.
Regardless, I’m telling myself to enjoy this summer just as I’ve enjoyed the summers that came before. Recharge these bones, brace for August, and try, as always, to approach next school year with intention and balance. With better work-life balance.
We’ll see how I do. For now, here’s to an easy summer.
Samuel Jaye Tanner 