Low Expectations are the Key to Happiness

Every summer, I get myself into an emotional pickle due to unreasonable expectations.  Maybe it is pop culture, or the nature of being a teacher, but I always think that my summers are going to be 100% more productive/relaxing/fun than they turn out.

While you are grinding through February and March in Iowa and the academic year, summer takes on a near mythical quality: free time!  Warm!  Sleeping in!  Getting "caught up"!  Getting fit!  And, every summer, I am crushed.  

Now that I have finally figured that out, I have come to realize my projections for the summer are off, like way off.  

Projections

Days are 28 hours long, not 24.

Everything will take 60% less time than it actually does.

I will function at full capacity, no slacking. 

Everything will be 30% better than it usually is.

Every day will feel like vacation! 

The weather will always be perfect!

Technology will never malfunction.  

I won't have to do anything stupid or boring.  

So, this summer, I am fully embracing low reasonable expectations.  Here are some examples.  

Work 

I am working "full time" this summer, along with work travel and some side projects.  Old-Summer-Me would have thought all that work could be completed in just a casual 4 hours a day of working from home.  

New-Summer-Me: Nope.  I am going to be working.  All. The.  Time.  

(Though, my friend relayed some work advice that she got from her dad, who seems like a happy guy.  He told her "you will never be caught up at work.  You just have to accept that fact and go home.")

Camping

Old-Summer-Me would have imagined myself camping every weekend, with a back packing trip thrown in there.  

New-Summer-Me: Nope.  Maybe, if I get to go camping once that would be great.  And, if I get a back packing trip, that is like a freak of nature coincidence.

Beach Time

Old-Summer-Me: I'd imagine myself lounging every afternoon at Gray's Lake, or Big Creek, getting some rays, reading trashy novels.

New-Summer-Me: WTF?  I live in Iowa.  And, because it has been raining every day, all the bodies of water are flooded.  

Getting Totally Prepared for Fall Semester: Ha, ha!  Hilarious. 

Getting Out of the Bike Everyday: Phiff.  As if.

Lots of Quality Time with My Dog: I wish. 

Gauzy, endless days of relaxation: Am I on crack?  

Extreme levels of fitness: Ba-ha-ha.

Granted, there is a lot of fun built into my schedule: I went to Yellowstone.  I am going backpacking, Brewery 100, Las Vegas, RAGBRAI, and, of course, Belgium.  (Hence all the working: that Belgian beer is spendy!).  But when I am not doing those things, I am working.  If any of the other stuff happens, it happens, and it is a super-awesome bonus.  

And, I need to enjoy the fun that is actually happened when it hits me.  Like lunch with my sister yesterday.  That was fun, and I don't get to do it often during the school year.  That's summer fun!  It is happening! 

And, of course, I am in for some suffering.  Backpacking, Brewery 100, RAGBY are all going to be major suffer festivals.  Whatever.  They will still be awesome.