Summer, in reality, is very rarely a collection of postcard moments - that ideal dream we develop throughout the winter of our tanned, carefree selves lounging at a bar under the moonlight or running on a sandy beach clad in brightly coloured bikinis. In reality, our airline will lose our luggage, we will get serious bright red burns instead of the Caribbean tan we were going for, our hair will be a victim of humidity instead of the sun-kissed piece of natural beauty we want, and we will spend quite a lot of time waiting around in crowded airports, stations and other transport-related nightmares getting us to that fleeting vision of a destination. Or we might simply not even go on holiday and the vision will remain just that.

I don’t mean to rant or complain – summer is, and has always been, a gem of a season, a natural happiness injection that can keep me going through the grey clouds and rain - my intention is just to point out a contradiction: we all know the hassle and the problems continuously popping up when chasing the summer dream; why then do we ignore them and choose to love summer anyway? What is it that makes these three months so utterly irresistible? If its reality is so less than perfect, the answer is not to be found in what summer is in itself, but rather in what it makes us be – because people do profoundly change during the summer months.

When the sun comes out the parks are full of flowers, trees bloom and people naturally pour outdoors; open-air cafes, terrace restaurants and outdoor events are all busier than chocolate shops on Valentine’s Day. As if by chain reaction, finding ourselves outside, surrounded by buzzy crowds, sharing the mere ability to not be locked up makes us more open and sociable. We meet people, chat, exchange stories, we let the atmosphere of happiness lure us into not working, not being busy, not feeling busy.

Everything will be done in due time. Now the priority is not to miss the blissful moments. We become transformed into relaxed Mediterranean types (or at least what we imagine relaxed Mediterranean types to be). By tuning down, we become more able to look at and enjoy the world around us: we can appreciate that park, that view, that building that we always passed by now illuminated by the shiny rays and our willingness to take a minute to look. And while we’re at it, we’re also hot: we wear less, we like our skin more than we did that milky colour we hid under endless layers during winter, our clothes are more colourful, lighter, flowier. Summer makes us come to terms with our body, allow it to enjoy lying around in the sun, being warmed up by its rays, being tickled by the grass, feeling the contact of our body with the world without the obstacles of coats, socks, boots & co.

And of course, summer is the holiday season: despite the downfalls, it reminds us of life without work, shoulds, musts, constant anxiety and unchanging routine. We live a kind of alternative life, a window looking out into what life could be like in a perfect world, what we could be, what we can be if, along with superfluous clothing, we get rid of the self-imposed constraints of normal life and are, for a while, purely and blissfully free.

Anna Leon
Illustration by Laurie Stansfield