What ordinary moments did you enjoy during your summer vacation?
What did you do this summer? Did you work or go to camp? Commune with animals and nature? Pick up a book and laze about in the sun reading it? Or find creative ways to stay cool in the blistering heat? Maybe you tried something new or just spent time with old friends? Whether big or small, dramatic or quite ordinary, what were some of the highlights of your time off? In “The Wonderfully Mundane Joys of Summer,” Jessica Grose writes that what her kids enjoyed most this summer was just getting to do “normal things”: A few weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal had a feature about parents who were splurging on summer fun for their kids — expensive birthday parties, all-out road trips — in part to make up for the joy lost during the early days of the Covid pandemic. It’s an understandable urge. Our kids missed out on a lot over the past few years; why not spoil them if we’re able to?
But my kids don’t seem to have been looking for a summer spectacular. Rather than desiring the extraordinary treat, they seem to be absolutely tickled by getting to do all the normal things this summer, without interruption. Sleeping over at a friend’s house, mundane in 2019, has a special gleam to it now. Picking them up from school is a mixed bag in terms of their day-to-day moods, but when I pick them up from camp, they’re buoyant — chattering away about the kinds of wholesome activities (Kickball! Color wars! S’mores!) that one imagines in superficial dreams about having children, the kinds that would end up in a glossy brochure about parenting. Perhaps the happiest I saw them, though, was on a family trip to Coney Island. If you’ve never been, it’s not a Disneyfied theme park. It is the opposite of fancy. I say this with love, but it is perfumed with hot garbage, like many parts of my adored New York City in the summer. And yet I’ve never seen my children so elated, experiencing the transcendently pure childhood joy that’s so hard to recapture as a grown-up. My oldest discovered roller coasters and couldn’t get enough of the famed Cyclone. I almost wish I could bottle that feeling of freedom and serve it to her as a seaside cure for anxiety.
Students, once you've read the entire newsletter, then tell us: Did you experience any “mundane joys” this summer? Share one or more of them. What made these “normal things” feel so wonderful and special? How was summer 2022 different, if in any way, from recent ones? Was there anything you felt you missed out on during the previous two pandemic-disrupted summers that you were finally able to do? Ms. Grose writes that her kids weren’t looking for a “summer spectacular,” but seemed to be “absolutely tickled by getting to do all the normal things this summer, without interruption,” such as sleeping over at a friend’s house. Does her description resonate with your own experiences? Did seemingly normal and mundane activities mean more to you during this vacation? What is one emotion, insight, lesson or memory from the summer that you would like to carry with you into the new school year? What was your highlight of the summer this year? My 2nd semester of college is starting up in a few days, and it made me realize just how little I've actually done this summer. Most if my days consisted of me waking up, browsing youtube, going for a bike ride, and then going back to sleep. I didn't even binge watch any new shows or watch many new movies or even play many new video games. I tried getting a summer joy to break my tedium, but I wasn't able to land anything. I just fell into a pattern and stuck with it for my whole break.
What do you do on a vacation?
I've never really been on a vacation, or ventured out of home if it wasn't for a job, school, or volunteer activity. I won't be taking one this year, or next year really. I know people take vacations all the time, but color me stupid, what do you actually do on a vacation?
Anyone else guilty of this kind of thing? Falling into a daily routine that you never try to break out of.
But my kids don’t seem to have been looking for a summer spectacular. Rather than desiring the extraordinary treat, they seem to be absolutely tickled by getting to do all the normal things this summer, without interruption. Sleeping over at a friend’s house, mundane in 2019, has a special gleam to it now. Picking them up from school is a mixed bag in terms of their day-to-day moods, but when I pick them up from camp, they’re buoyant — chattering away about the kinds of wholesome activities (Kickball! Color wars! S’mores!) that one imagines in superficial dreams about having children, the kinds that would end up in a glossy brochure about parenting. Perhaps the happiest I saw them, though, was on a family trip to Coney Island. If you’ve never been, it’s not a Disneyfied theme park. It is the opposite of fancy. I say this with love, but it is perfumed with hot garbage, like many parts of my adored New York City in the summer. And yet I’ve never seen my children so elated, experiencing the transcendently pure childhood joy that’s so hard to recapture as a grown-up. My oldest discovered roller coasters and couldn’t get enough of the famed Cyclone. I almost wish I could bottle that feeling of freedom and serve it to her as a seaside cure for anxiety.
Students, once you've read the entire newsletter, then tell us: Did you experience any “mundane joys” this summer? Share one or more of them. What made these “normal things” feel so wonderful and special? How was summer 2022 different, if in any way, from recent ones? Was there anything you felt you missed out on during the previous two pandemic-disrupted summers that you were finally able to do? Ms. Grose writes that her kids weren’t looking for a “summer spectacular,” but seemed to be “absolutely tickled by getting to do all the normal things this summer, without interruption,” such as sleeping over at a friend’s house. Does her description resonate with your own experiences? Did seemingly normal and mundane activities mean more to you during this vacation? What is one emotion, insight, lesson or memory from the summer that you would like to carry with you into the new school year? What was your highlight of the summer this year? My 2nd semester of college is starting up in a few days, and it made me realize just how little I've actually done this summer. Most if my days consisted of me waking up, browsing youtube, going for a bike ride, and then going back to sleep. I didn't even binge watch any new shows or watch many new movies or even play many new video games. I tried getting a summer joy to break my tedium, but I wasn't able to land anything. I just fell into a pattern and stuck with it for my whole break.
What do you do on a vacation?
I've never really been on a vacation, or ventured out of home if it wasn't for a job, school, or volunteer activity. I won't be taking one this year, or next year really. I know people take vacations all the time, but color me stupid, what do you actually do on a vacation?
Anyone else guilty of this kind of thing? Falling into a daily routine that you never try to break out of.
