By Sam Adams
Summer, as we know it, is dead. I canât say they didnât warn us. But there it is, clear as a bright July afternoon.
It wasnât always this way. As April turned into May turned into June in earlier years, we would grow increasingly giddy at the prospect of a worry-free summer. No more classes, no more books, no more teachersâ dirty looks, right? Well, those days are long gone.
As we progress on our slow, laborious march through a Harvard-Westlake education, the arrival of summer vacation becomes less of a welcome occurrence on the horizon and more of a necessary respite from the heavy stress of the year and, fresher still, finals. More of a break to stave off insanity than one to reward our diligence throughout the year.
What only exacerbates the general lack of frivolity associated with a Harvard-Westlake summer is the strategic use of such summers. Not one fellow incoming junior that I have talked to about their break has said something along the lines of, “Oh, I pretty much just slept, ate, and hung out with my friends all summer.” If they didnât have a paying job, they had an internship. Or were practicing a sport. Or were preparing for the SAT. Or were taking college courses. Almost every one of which included a resume-packing motive.
Now, this is not a pure indictment or lamentation of the passing of the traditional “fun” summer break. Summer jobs have been a part of the nostalgic American upbringing. As Lester Burnham, the protagonist in the movie “American Beauty” once longingly reminisced to a teenager, “When I was your age, I flipped burgers all summer just to be able to buy an eight-track⦠I had my whole life ahead of me.”
There is absolutely something to be said for having a summer job. A reliance on oneâs own two hands rather than Fatherâs Visa card for spending money is one that can be developed through such a job. But the kind of jobs we get are a bit much for high school students. The stress in some of our summers is enough to rival even the most packed school day.
Of course, high school is just preparing us for “adulthood,” but letâs take our friend Lester Burnhamâs advice. High school is a taxing time both academically and socially, but weâre not that far removed from our younger days, when summer was a time to take it down a notch and just relax. A summer job that involves the mindless labor of, say, a fast food joint allows for a mental break and a summer that isnât preparing us for careers. High school is tough, so why canât we just take a few months out of the year to stop and just smell the hamburgers?
