Summertime: ...Easy?

by Molly Anne Bruggeman
(South Dakota, USA)

An easy part about summer living was not having to drive almost an hour a day to school. Classes were to be completed online at my own pace, usually being left until the sun had gone to sleep for the night.

An easy part about summer living was being able to go outside whenever one wanted. There was no snow, slush, or ice on the roads; just the illusion of water due to the reflection of the white-hot sun in the bright blue skies above. There was no bitter coldness in the air, but instead, humidity and the smell of freshly mowed lawns.

An easy part about summer living was being able to get paid money to sit online at home doing different tasks for hours every day in pajamas while others were slaving away at 9-5 jobs.

A hard part about summer living was having to balance online classes with an unpaid internship that almost demanded too much. All three dedications were needed, however; it was the last summer before college graduation, and I was determined to give myself that extra edge against my classmates.

A hard part about summer living was barely being able to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather. Online classes and internships meant a lot of time spent indoors in front of a bright computer screen and occasionally sneaking a glimpse of the sun outside my porch window. Being outside usually meant mowing my father’s business lawn for twenty dollars; a dollar amount that seemed like a jackpot to me.

A hard part about summer was wanting to move out of my parents’ house in almost one year - maybe even across the country - relying only on my online earnings because it was too difficult to find a decent paying job that worked around college demands. A hard part about summer was birthing dreams, only to be unsure if they were going to live or be put on the back burner for a few years.

These hard parts were all slightly more bearable in the summer. In a state where winter lives for over half the year, the sunshine, sundresses, and sun tea made the realities of growing up a little happier. With the growth of flowers and crops came the growth of dreams and aspirations for the future along with hopes that they would stay alive and not die come the first frost of the season.