Never Waste a Summer

“Summer is a freedom around here, and I plan to use it as much as possible. … Freedom at its basic form can be represented by one thing: the ability to have unrestricted access to what the outside world has to offer.” (photo: PublicDomainPictures.com)

It’s always the same deal every year. Winter lasts just a little bit longer than we like, we start getting little hints of spring. Grass starts showing through the snow, all the large trucks in the area have dismantled their snow plow rigs.

Then it hits, and hits fast.

The Summer.

I’ve always been more of a summer person than a winter person, but who isn’t really. Sure the cold is sometimes easier to handle on a physical level than the heat, but each has its pros and cons. These past months has been what I like to call “The Time of The Pollen” when the air is full of those nasty little tuffs of allergy inducing flower jizz. With heavy gusts of wind you can see it floating through the air, and lo, my eyes start to burn and my lungs start to struggle.

This time will be over soon though, as the weather continues to warm up and the clouds are ever present. It’s the perfect time in the city to go visit the zoo, and by gum, we certainly have. Three times in the past two weeks actually. It’s funny how we started preparing for the summer months ago, as my parents handed us a gift certificate to purchase a membership to the zoo. The whole year is open to us, and we’re gonna use it as much as possible. We’re even able to take two additional guests with us, and my parents have already been along.

I remember the trips my family used to take when I was a kid. Mostly to South Carolina to see my brother, Frank, who was in college at the time, and also for his wedding years later. I remember one early morning, as I was half still sleeping at the age of 9, my brother, Ash, carried me from the couch to the RV and carefully placed me in the overhead bunk. Our seven-hour trip was well worth the exhaustion, though, as the sites we would see and such were mesmerizing.

I remember the trip to New York when I was around the same age. It was the last time Ash and I would pal around together as brothers for a while, until he returned home from college. We went to Ellis Island, the Empire State Building, F.A.O. Schwarz, etc. I got to relive that magic years later with a girlfriend of mine in high school, but I suppose that’s a different story for a different time.

I’ve always loved travelling when we were able, and summer is the perfect time to do it. There aren’t so many restrictions on where you can go and what you can do. Summer heat doesn’t leave piles of white nonsense to block up the roads and make them unsafe. Summer doesn’t force you into a stuffy jacket and a near suffocating hat just so you can survive.

Summer is a freedom around here, and I plan to use it as much as possible. We’ve even considered moving to a place where “summer” is constant. No snow to be found and no restrictions to harsh. Freedom at its basic form can be represented by one thing: the ability to have unrestricted access to what the outside world has to offer. The ability to truly act out in that constant human nature aspect of Manifest Destiny, pushing on to places you’ve never been and making it your own, in one way or another.

Never waste a summer, the most rewarding of seasons.

A version of this first appeared on Dad on the Mic.