The Earned Summer
Graduating college did not really feel real until twelve months after I received my diploma.
Immediately after graduation, everything still felt normal. I was excited to start my career, but was destined to make the most of my last real summer. I booked a one way ticket to Asia and spent two months traveling before I ran out of money and moved to New York City to join SeatGeek.
Work in this first year has met expectations. For the first four months it was great to be in office. The energy was high, and everything about working in person was new and exciting. But then winter came. After spending the first 22 years of my life in California, I experienced my first real winter. It was cold, dark, and long. I got to the office and the sun was often hidden behind the clouds, and when I left the office it was dark outside.
As the city started to thaw, I felt myself waiting for something that was never coming. In school, I had been trained to work hard for eight months and then receive a long break. Summer was part of the deal, and after surviving this winter I deserved it more than ever. But post graduation, summer did not arrive with freedom attached to it. I still had work the next day, regardless of the weather outside. I knew this was coming before I started work, but I didn’t expect how impactful it would be in my transition from college to postgrad.
That was when I started noticing how my coworkers, and New Yorkers more broadly, treated summer. People took advantage of every ray of sunlight. A Shake Shack burger during lunch suddenly felt meaningful. Sitting on a park bench in Madison Square Park after work, listening to live music, became a real plan. The city felt alive because everyone understood that this season was temporary. The intentionality of summer was something I was experiencing for the first time.
In Southern California, good weather is the default. In New York, summers are earned. The harsh winter creates a deep respect for each warm night, each drink outside, and each walk home without a jacket.
By September, New Yorkers know summer can disappear at any moment, so they become intentional with what’s left of it.
This last summer was my first earned summer. Work, winter, and the city changed how I understood the season. Summer was no longer a break handed to me by a school calendar: it was something I had to notice, protect, and enjoy in the margins of everyday life.