Charlotte Latvala: Last days lead to summer

My daughter closed her laptop with a smile.

“That’s it,” she said. “All the grades are in. I’m done.”

Not quite done with college, that is, but done with her junior year. In college, as in high school, the junior year seems to be the most challenging. The hardest classes, the toughest professors, the never-ending pile of papers and projects and performances.

The looming realization that in another year, you’ll be leaving the cozy confines of the world you know and love. You’ll move on into the great unknown.

But for now, summer.

Summer, with its relaxed schedules, balmy evenings, and soft undercurrent of anticipation. The feeling that something fun and exciting might be just around the corner. Even if you’re working a summer job (and my daughter will be working very hard), there’s no homework. No late-night scramble to finish a paper. No checking your email to see if grades have posted.

There’s nothing that compares to it in the adult working world. The world that doesn’t take a few months off to catch some rays and regroup every year.

I don’t envy the schoolwork, but I do envy the summer. That is, I envy the release from drudgery, the knowledge that for the next few months, the normal rules don’t apply.

Is there any joy like the joy of the last day of school? I can still remember the satisfaction of packing up my elementary school desk, the bare look of the semi-dismantled classroom. The warm breeze wafting through the window, bearing hints of just-mown grass and dandelions. The thrilling sound of the dismissal bell ringing for the very last time, and the roar of delight from your classmates (some of whom, to be perfectly frank, you’ll be happy to be away from till next September).

There’s a reason why Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” has been a crowd-pleaser for 50-plus years. It succinctly captured that surge of pleasure you felt as you skipped down the sidewalk, moving away from the place your childish heart considered the world’s most terrible prison.

You had a whole summer ahead of you! You had neighborhood intrigue with your friends. You had sprinklers and croquet and filthy bare feet and a late bedtime. It was summer, and it was the best.

And later, the summers of high school and college – when you had jobs and responsibilities and a slightly more realistic handle on life – well, those summers were magical, too.

One of the perks of having a child late in life (I’m 62; my youngest daughter is 20) is that you get to keep revisiting those submerged experiences. (As one of my friends said, only half-joking: “What’s the point in having kids if you can’t live vicariously through them?”)

I don’t miss school. But I do miss its absence. I miss the rhythm and shape that it gave to our lives.

I miss twirling the radio dial, trying to find that one perfect song for the triumphant last day.

Charlotte is a columnist for The Times. You can reach her at charlottelatvala@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Latvala: Last days lead to summer