The Boys Are Back in Town
As the final school bell rings and hallways echo with the last bursts of end-of-year excitement, there’s a subtle shift in the air. Papers are graded, lockers are cleared, and classrooms fall quiet.
There’s something almost sacred about this transition — a collective exhale after months of routine, deadlines, and structure. The end of the school year is more than a marker on the calendar; it’s a shift in tempo. A slowing down. A change of pace that invites both rest and reflection.
For students, it’s a well-earned break from early alarms and homework, replaced with later mornings, bike rides, camps, or aimless afternoons. For teachers, it’s a moment to step off the treadmill and rediscover the part of themselves not bound to a syllabus or a bell schedule. And for parents, it’s a mix of relief and chaos, balancing the freedom of summer with the logistics of unstructured time.
But more than anything, for everyone, summer is possibility. It’s the season that gently insists there’s more to life than the rush. More than to-do lists and tightly packed schedules. It reminds us to slow down, to wander a little, to spend time outside without looking at the clock. To embrace the messiness of time off.
That often includes boredom — and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, boredom can be a gift. It creates space for curiosity to creep in, for creativity to stretch its legs. When there’s nothing scheduled, the mind begins to wander, and from that wandering, new ideas are born. Kids find new hobbies, build forts, invent games. Adults rediscover interests long shelved or simply find a moment to sit with their thoughts. In boredom, there’s room to imagine.
This doesn’t mean summer is without its rhythms. There are family vacations and part-time jobs, summer reading, and closet cleaning. But even within those, there’s a looseness. And a chance to reset. There’s a nostalgia that tags along with the season, the way warm air carries memories of childhood, with popsicles on porches, and summer nights that stretch longer than they should. Summer has a way of making even the ordinary feel golden.
So, whether your summer is packed with plans or blissfully unscheduled, may it offer what the rest of the year so rarely does: time to breathe, to stretch, and yes, to hopefully get a little bored. Because sometimes, in the stillness of summer, we remember who we are beyond the race, we soak in the laughter of the loved ones surrounding us, and we prepare for what comes next.
For this empty nester whose college-age boys are back in town (for at least part of the summer), there’s a happy camper bursting at the seams.
In her lovely essay “The Boys Are Back in Town” Claudia Carson-Habeeb captures one of life’s lessons which is that we need breaks. And not only during the leisurely summer months but during our busy daily activities. Take a breather, reflect and let a little boredom creep in and realize that a “Shift in tempo” might ring in renewal.