An editor’s letter for a Vox magazine issue on Jun. 2, 2011 featuring a summer events preview
Summertime brings humidity, flip flops, sunburns and the allure of more free time. Unless you’re a student or teacher, summer probably doesn’t provide more free time. However, year after year, everyone l know creates to-do lists full of productive odd jobs and summer fun that never get completed.
My mother is a perfect example. Every summer, she says she wants to finally clean out her junk closet, paint a bedroom or go visit a new vacation spot. But at the end of every summer, she complains how busy she was. Why is she, like so many people I know, always surprised that life doesn’t actually slow down in the summer?
I fear that I’m turning into my mom because this summer I started to make a similarly productive to-do list. I was going to paint a dresser, organize my wardrobe and take an exercise class. But once we started compiling the list of CoMo events for our Vox summer preview, all hope of summer accomplishments went out the window. Although I might not actually have the mystical, extra summer free time to squeeze in these fun, recreational events, I’m definitely going to try.
Our preview (Page 6 and online) highlights events through early September around mid-Missouri. I’m looking forward to the Boone County Fair so I have an excuse to eat pounds of fried food; the Show-Me State Games (who knew there was ballroom dancing there?); and The Sound of Music at Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre.
My plan is to put these events on my calendar and just know I probably won’t get other, more useful things done. And I’m not going to complain at the end of the summer, but maybe I’ll help my mom finally clean out her junk closet.
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