Summer Better Than Others

What is your favorite season of year? Why?

Of the seasons, I prefer summer for a variety of reasons. We’ll get to those reasons in a moment, but let’s look at the cons of the others.

Winter has cold and often snow. Although I did some sledding as a child, this was not as fulfilling as riding on cardboard down long grassy slopes. Days are short, nights are long, and it contains several holidays that prolong the season. “Let it snow?” Hell, no!

Autumn is nice for the changing leaf colors—until you need to start raking them. The season was always synonymous with the start of school; although retired, I still think in terms of Fall and Spring (semesters). This is slightly ironic, since I always liked school, doing well in grade school, high school, and college, and then working in academia for the remainder of my pre-retirement time. But seeing those first back to school ads? Always unpleasant.

Spring is a good season, though often filled with April showers and May pollen. In other words, Spring = Sneezing and Allergies. It eventually led to the end of the school year, but in the meantime there was the year-end work crush (papers, exams, grading, etc.). Not to mention, in later years, I had to write an annual report, talking about all my accomplishments for the year. I just finished; now I have to relive and sell it?

This brings us to summer. Time off from school. Warm days. Sometimes they’re hot but I’m one of the “some” who like it hot. Vacation trips often happen in the summer. In my last position, I never taught in the summer, so it was truly time off and time well spent.

In retirement, it’s always summer in terms of work, but my other negative thoughts for spring, fall, and winter are still in effect.

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