5 inconvenient truths of summer

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And no, I don’t mean Christmastime. 

Summer break is right around the corner and although the first few weeks are more like a late spring break and less like an early summer, most of us live in North Carolina, and that means hot temperatures and early pool openings. 

While everyone and their mother loves a good hot summer, there are a few inconvenient truths about summer that make it not so great for everyone involved:

Back sweat

I’m sure most of you are already acquainted with our good friend back sweat, especially those of you who live on south campus. Since the walk to main campus is mostly one giant slow uphill, by the time you get to your classes there’s usually a little puddle at the small of your back. 

This puddle becomes a full-blown swimming pool in the summer, but hopefully you won’t have to be trekking back and forth between classes, so maybe you’re swimming pool will be a little smaller than most.

Sunburns

For those of us unlucky enough to have been born with fish-belly white skin, summer means sunburns and sunburns mean summer. I’ve already got a nasty one on my shoulders from two hours spent outside on Saturday, so I know that some of you are already sporting some red splotches. 

Unfortunately, red skin is just part and parcel of summer for some of us, so break out the sunscreen and the Aloe Vera and prepare for the worst. Those of you blessed with sunburn-resistant skin, you better count your lucky stars this summer season. 

Sunscreen

I don’t know if I’m the only one who hates sunscreen, but I’m certainly not the only who needs it (and if you think you don’t, read above). 

The lotion itself is gross and heavy and leaves your skin feeling sticky and smelling like plastic. If I could get away without wearing sunscreen, I would. Unfortunately, that would mean either skin cancer or hiding away in my room until the sun sets (like a vampire), so it’s something we just have to grin and bear to the best of our abilities. 

Condensation

Nothing is better than an ice-cold glass of lemonade on a hot day, but nothing is worse than reaching for that glass and having a drop of water skim down your wrist into the crease of your elbow. It’s an icky feeling, picking up a glass and having to deal with the condensation around the rim, but short of drinking room-temperature water (which is another level of nasty that I don’t have time to go into) or buying a fancy anti-condensation water bottle, there doesn’t seem to be anything to do for it. 

Ice cream man anxiety. 

I know for a fact that I wasn’t the only who heard the ice cream man roaming around my neighborhood when I was a kid. I also know that I wasn’t the only one who panicked every time that music started playing, mainly because I was terrified of being left without my Captain America cherry popsicle.

To this day, that twinkly music still fills me with anxiety and an intense desire to start running toward the source, no matter how ridiculous it may look. I am (almost) a grown up, darn it! The height of my maturity will come whenever I stop fearing that music and the panicky desires that come with it.  

But regardless of these summer fears and others, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, most of us will no longer be going to class and that’s enough of an incentive to deal with any inconvenient truths of the summer season.