If June rolls around and you can't lie out by the pool in the middle of the day on a Tuesday, does summer actually exist?
Of course it does — it's just a lot less fun than it used to be. It's summertime in the adult world.
I usually can do a pretty good job of embracing all the changes and responsibilities that come with life as a 20-something. But summer is one of those things that was objectively better when we were younger. I mean, come on: It was a months-long break from our main obligation. Can you imagine ducking out of work from June to August and not getting fired for it?
Of course not, because in the real world, summer doesn't signify some magical reset button, shifting us into the next stage of our lives. The same projects and meetings and deadlines still exist after Memorial Day weekend. It's just hotter and stickier when you walk to and from the office parking lot every day.
So instead of taking months off, you'll have to cobble together your precious vacation days — if you've even accumulated any yet — for maybe a week's worth of that carefree summertime feeling. And make sure you schedule and thoroughly organize this break in the dead of winter if you have any hopes of spending it with other people. After all, your friends don't have summers off anymore either (though your Instagram feed of beach pictures may lead you to believe otherwise).
But this will be my second summer with a full-time adult job, and the sting of summers past is already starting to fade. So I guess the bright side of "real world" summers that I'll have to embrace is that I will get used to them. And after giving myself a moment to whine from my windowless cubicle, I guess I can find some upsides that are still part of the season.
I'll start with the obvious: the weather. While it can get unbearably humid in the depths of a Baltimore summer, it's much better than any snowmaggeddon/polar vortex/March snow. We're on the opposite end of the seasonal depression spectrum.
And more sunshine means leaving work when it's still light out, which means that all your hopes and dreams are achievable (or at least it feels that way until the adrenaline fades).
Getting dressed in the summer is also so much easier (for girls).
Sure it's a soul-sucking experience to put on a bathing suit for the first time in the season, but otherwise it's a breeze. Just stock up on sundresses and you're ready for almost any occasion — from the office to the beach. (Sorry, guys, this is definitely the opposite for you. I don't know how you deal with wearing long pants and suit jackets in July).
Though it may feel like a consolation prize compared to summer break, weekends during "adult summer" can actually be pretty awesome. Like I've mentioned before, warm weather draws tons of opportunities for organized, outdoor day drinking. And as an Ohio native, I'm still in awe of the fact that a weekend beach trip is a thing that is possible here.
Really, all of the top summer activities go from lazily spread out to clustered on the weekends. That's a trade-off I'm willing to accept.
So even if summer will never be truly as great as it was when it was synonymous with a months-long vacation, we 20-somethings have to learn to love what we've got.
And it's not that hard to do when it's so sunny and beautiful outside.
Ellen Fishel's column appears regularly in b.