I love the end of the year. August begins easily my favorite 6-8 months of the entire year.

Birthdays a plenty.

Awesome holidays.

Time with family and friends.

Food everywhere.

Also, things just seem to cool down, literally and figuratively. I feel less anxious as the year winds down. Longer nights mean that the end of the day feels more ambiguous. I feel more awake, more clear. More capable of approaching each day and every challenge with a confident smile.

Yep, this is a good period for Chris, one that typically hangs on until early April or May. Honestly, it’s kind of a weird phenomena.

When I first noticed the trend, it seemed counter-intuitive. We go to school for roughly 13+ years of our lives (17+ if we go to college), so it would make sense for our minds to fall into the seasonal habits that this provides. One would think we would naturally feel better in the summer and mid-winter. This would correspond with breaks from school, where we would go push hoops in the streets or play some rousing games of stickball. But I personally am not great during summer. I’m lazy, consistently sweaty and generally avoiding the sun like a Fox news correspondent avoids facts. Not that I’m not a summer person. I love going to the beach or pool, grilling out, going for hikes. But on the general day to day, summer is a bit of a drag.

I am more positive and eager in the fall, which would correspond with being IN school, not out. I think this is still my body being locked in the habits I developed over 17+ years. See, I place a lot of my happiness in my ability to be productive. With the cooler weather also comes a typical increase in my production abilities. I write more, create more, travel more. So, I guess my mind is still latched into the idea that the two “semesters” are productive times: periods of work and learning and mental stimulation. This for me translates directly into me accomplishing more of the things I love and thus results in a happier Chris.

The short message here: Stay in school kiddies.

Happy end of summer everyone.

~C