Hey friends,

It’s the end of August. And boy has this summer been…not what I expected.

As this is the unofficial final day of summer, as we come off of the fever dream that is summer, as we look onto what’s to come this fall…I have some reflections that I wanted to share here, and maybe a few realizations.

Let’s Reflect

You know how they say you get the thing you need, not the thing you want? Well, that’s been my experience this summer.

I thought I would spend this summer updating my TpT store, sitting poolside alternately writing blog posts and swimming, hanging out with my plants in the backyard, getting 10,000 steps a day.

That is not what happened.

While I did engage in those activities, they didn’t happen NEARLY as much as I thought they would because the perpetual heat/humidity wave hit New Jersey with a vengeance and triggered a summer long slew of migraine attacks. And with that came *depression* and *anxiety*, my favorite trifecta of chronic bullsh*t.

I fought the sads and the anxiouses and the migraines, but there’s only so much fighting you can do before you surrender to reverse seasonal affective disorder.

Well, let’s not call it surrendering, so much as we should call it *compassion*. I had to give myself a lot of grace this summer as I slogged through. My poor body is sick of sunshine, is sick of heat, is sick of muggy, wet, humid air.

The Realization

I always thought that the excitement I felt in spring as the weather began to warm up was because I was awaiting summer.

It’s not.

Turns out…I just love spring. Period. End of sentence. Ha. Because as soon as summer hits, that feeling of vibrant aliveness goes away and dread takes its place. And maybe it’s best just to lean in. Enjoy my least favorite season as much as I can, while also doing what I need to get through it.

Another Reflection

I leapt into this summer ready to populate the sh*t out of my TpT store, but to also start working on edits for my novel.

Guess what I’m about to say…are you sensing a trend here?

THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN!

While I did finish an entire Frankenstein unit which you can find by clicking here, I am still awaiting the edits from the editor for my novel.

At first I was bummed that I didn’t get to spend the summer exactly the way I thought I would but then…

Another Realization

I ended up getting the summer I needed, even if it wasn’t the summer I “wanted”.

After I left teaching, I didn’t get a break. I had jumped from one career to another with a few months of overlap. The summer of 2021 was challenging as I tried to figure out who I was if I wasn’t a teacher, and I found myself saying on repeat, “I need a break.”

This became my mantra. “I need a break.” “I need a break.” “I need a break.”

A refrain repeated to my husband, my therapist, my cat. Really anyone who would listen. So, when I quit my marketing job to pursue self-employment, I no longer felt like I needed a break because I would be in control of my schedule and work flow. I would be the one doling out days off and what got done between the hours of 9-5. And I was ready to take on all I had planned for myself – diving back into my novel and working through lesson plans for my teacher store.

But then, as is usually the case when one makes plans, all that planning flew right out the window. My body, my migraines, and the novel still out with the editor meant that I finally got to take that break I’ve been wanting for years.

Unfortunately, because it wasn’t on my terms, I don’t know that I appreciated it as much in the moment as I do in hindsight. But I’m grateful for it, no matter how it came, and it continued to teach me one of the life lessons that keeps coming up: if you don’t make time to rest, the universe will force you to sit down.

That’s what my migraines do. And this summer, that’s what my migraines did.

Final Thoughts

I leave you with a favorite poem that I wrote about last August but feel bears repeating.

Until next time. Wishing you some quiet and peace as we close out summer.