As I watched the last days of summer fly by, I felt like a part of me had died. My summer world was over, and I was embarking upon the realm of Upper Year. Students are very different people over the summer than during the school year. Every September, returning students undergo a metamorphosis of behaviors and lifestyle habits due to the environmental change. We’re like the furry creatures on Animal Planet; we shed our winter coats to adapt for summer warmth and grow them back for protection during the colder months. The fact that I reference Animal Planet shows how much free time I had this summer. I took no elaborate vacations and had no plans to save starving children in Africa. Nope, I was homebound, never venturing very far from North Andover. Forced to find entertainment, I found myself passing time in front of Animal Planet, making obscure collages with Paris Hilton’s face, and learning how to weave friendship bracelets. During the school year, I would never have devoted a second to any of these time-killers; I’m too busy with work, sports, community service, theater, voice lessons etc. And I’m sure I’m not the only person who rearranges their priorities during the summer. Here I propose the seasonal-dependent, split-personality phenomenon that many students experience: during the school year, we behave very differently than we do in the summer. We have our “School Year Self” and our “Summer Self” depending on the environment. During the academic year, when our school year personalities are in full gear, Andover students are frantically busy, running from one class to another. We feel useless and fidgety if we get a free period and have the constant urge to do something.’ We are very social and constantly interact with lots of people. Our eating and sleeping patterns are tweaked to fit into our social and academic lives. Andover students notoriously forgo sleep for homework. But in the lazy months of July and August, our habits and priorities are warped. We sleep for days at a time and consider the week well spent. We engage in mind-numbing, pointless activities and games because we have nothing else to do. The drive to get things done is significantly dulled, as we opt for the monotonous tasks of channel surfing. Many times, we find ourselves doing nothing at all, something that we could never justify doing in the school year. But hey, it’s summer! It is perfectly acceptable, if not normal, to lounge on a beach for two weeks and do nothing else. We organize our schedules around meals and sleep. The most basic, primal instincts take over. And as our friends veg out at their resorts across the world, we often find ourselves isolated and disconnected from all traces of school.In short, we are very adaptable creatures. The transition between lifestyles is slow and painful. For the first few weeks of school, many remain in summer mode and may show up to their first period class at noon. Basic reading seems mentally taxing and paper writing appears to be an unsurpassable feat. It’s important to be patient and confident that the transition will occur, even though it may take much longer than you might like. As for myself, I know I will struggle from Animal Planet withdrawal. And if I put my Meerkat Manor before my math for a few days, it’s not my fault; I’m still in my summer state of mind.
