Today I read an article that really blew my mind about summer vacations. Apparently, most countries have a shorter summer vacation than the U.S. and have better educational systems, whereas the long summer vacation (3 months in most places) is failing the children who really need help, who aren't keeping up with their educational potential, and don't do anything in the summer to help that. Kids are not using their brain enough during summer vacation and honing their skills and getting enough repetitions (reps) in to exercise their brain, thus letting it get rusty and corroding their potential to learn more. Summer reading? Sure, I saw the reading list the teachers gave out at the beginning of every summer, but even I as a voracious reader didn't complete all the assignments, and I imagine most kids left those tomes untouched. Suddenly, amidst all the hype and hoopla summer brings of fireworks, barbecue, long days, beaches, ice cream, and everything that comes with, is it all just a.......you guessed it......PYRAMID SCHEME????
Certainly, if summer vacation is a pyramid scheme, I've been sucked in. Every summer as I see my facebook feed light up with people who go on wild trips, honeymoons, exotic safari adventures, etc., I wonder what I'm doing at my cubicle going through the motions of work. There's a whole world out there! I want to see it! Why can't it be like the yesteryears of summer, when I didn't have school and had the whole world at my fingertips? Adventures at my summer camp, visiting foreign countries during college, going on a work-vacation and living in a different city for the summer, so many of my best memories are during the summer! All the best movies come out in the summer!
Well, the busiest travel days are also in the summer, and the travel companies make a KILLING off of summer vacations. You gotta plan your vacation SUPER early nowadays to compete with the families who finally have time off of school, plus the college kids who have the semester off. By the way, who started the idea of summer vacation? Could it be......(like Christmas and Valentine's Day) artificial holidays to generate more revenue for the travel industry? I think I may be onto something here, and the school system definitely makes sense. Wouldn't it make more sense for schools to be off at different times of the year, so that there can be staggered holidays, etc., to combat the cluster of students and their families going places?
The article I read also mentioned that society (at least in America) tends to glorify summer vacation, like we all have in our minds this glorious image of summer, implanted (possibly as part of brainwashing, another sure sign of pyramid scheme) from youth as an awesome time. Even in adult society, there's the idea of a "summer romance" or "summer fling" blossoming, or a "summer hit song" that takes over that's on everyone's radio, summer festivals, etc. All happy things to have us all enjoy summer. Consume, consume, consume. To that I counter with summer flat tires, summer heat stroke, summer humidity, summer bug infestations, summer exhaustion (Natsubate, featured in previous articiles), summer air conditioning bills. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but like the glitzy Las Vegas, I'm over summer and not buying into the pyramid scheme. Not my favorite season.
What is my favorite season? Like 500 Days of Summer the Movie, I think I end up preferring summer to....autumn.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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