Summer never works out the way I think it will

Now that I’m seeing the light at the end of this tunnel full of graduations and goodbyes and parties and pictures, I am suddenly faced with the fact that summer, that elusive, free-time-filled land of joy and fulfillment, is staring me in the face—and I’m NOT READY FOR IT.

This is what happens every year. Throughout the school year, I encounter dozens of little projects that recquire my attention but which I am too busy to deal with because of school. The solution? Simple! Put it off till summer, when I will of course have free time flowing out of my ears by the bucketful.

I never seem to learn that summer is just as busy as, if not more busy than, any other time of the year. And, recently, the fact that the school year has ended has not necessarily meant that my schoolwork is finished. Last year I didn’t finish my “leftover” schoolwork until August—not because I couldn’t have finished it in a much shorter period of time, but because I didn’t find a deadline that motivated me sufficiently until then.

Luckily, I do have a concrete, highly-motivating deadline set: July 5th, the date I have agreed to begin work on a large, time-intensive web development job. That means that I will have finished my remaining schoolwork by then… all ten bazillion Calculus lessons included. With sufficient determination, my productivity rate is amazing. I can’t guarantee, of course, that I won’t have a number of sleepless nights immediately before that deadline, but I will be done on time.

If I have enough energy by then to crawl my way to the computer, expect some kind of celebratory “Hurrah! I’m done with school!” post on the 4th of July (A holiday in the U.S.). Then I’ll go chill and have a picnic and watch some fireworks and collapse in heap of sleep-deprived relief. (This doesn’t mean I won’t post between then and now, though. Goodness, no!)

So what am I doing this summer, anyway? I’m so glad you asked. Here are a few of my goals/plans:

• Begin the process of saving as much money for school as possible. Besides my job at a local retail store, I will be seeking employment as a web designer, photographer, babysitter, etc.
• Read Bulletproof Web Design and CSS Mastery cover to cover. (These seem to be excellent resources, btw. I recently purchased them and have been skimming them a bit, and I am quite impressed. Dan Cederholm and Cameron Moll, author and co-author of the books mentioned, respectively, are two of my favorite web-designers/writers.)
• Hopefully I will spend some actual time outdoors. I would dearly like to accquire some more freckles.
• Keep a reasonable sleep schedule. (hahahahaHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah right.)
• Learn how to use my camera as if it were an extension of my arms. I want to OWN that thing by the end of this summer.
• Then, of course, there are the typical goals that I never actually accomplish: Exercise more! Reorganize my room! Paint and draw more! Become a completely responsible, well-balanced, productive individual! You know, those kind of things.

BUT. As I believe I already mentioned up there ^, summer never works out the way I think it will. So your guess is as good as mine what will actually end up happening. But I’m sure you’ll hear about it, whatever it is.

P.S. Speaking of parties, I have a a set on flickr of photos from a couple recent graduations.

Posted on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 1:15 am.
Belongs with: Happening Things.
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