This Summer, Go Low-Key with Your Goals

In defense of quiet, easy Summer days

Rose-tinted childhood summer memories have got a lot to answer for.

So many of us remember the good ol’ summer days through this lens. We remember playing, perhaps swimming if we had a body of water in which to do so, eating ice creams and generally enjoying the good weather. We remember endless blue skies — even those of us who grew up in the UK — picnics, saltwater, and sand.

It’s this view, I think, that shapes how we think summers should be as an adult. The problem is, this is 2023 not 1983. Consumerist culture has taken all those notions we had of summer and turned them into something purchasable or perhaps even worse, Instagrammable.

Nowadays, you’re not allowed a low-key summer. You have to have a perfect one.

You feel like you have to jet off somewhere hot and beautiful. Or create incredible Summery food platters. Or host a lavish BBQ every week. Or attempt to craft precious memories for our own children under inexplicably organized conditions like fancy summer sleepovers or marquee birthday parties that look like mini weddings.

All in pursuit of that childhood summer feeling that probably played out in your backyard with little more than a garden hose. At least it did for me.

For my part, I’m back in the UK for the next few months. I’ve got a lot of personal shit going on, from fertility tests and potential treatments to a Portuguese residency application. Emotionally, this is going to be one tough summer.

I’ve also, for the next few weeks, got something in the region of 1000 miles to cover for a wedding in the south, a funeral in the east, and house-sitting for a friend in Scotland. Aside from the funeral, these are wonderful things, but they will also be tiring and busy.

Once they’re done, I intend to have an incredibly low-key summer. One with little to no pressure other than reaching these incredibly loose summer goals:

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I want to eat outside at least once a week. I’m not talking about a fancy hosting situation here, I’m talking about hauling my pajama’d ass outside with my cereal bowl or a eating sandwich sat on the grass. And I’m only aiming for once a week because I’ve lived through enough British summers to know that once a week is realistic. If I make it three or four times, I’m doing well.