An Overachiever's Underachieving Summer Bucket List

I bring a certain “organized fun is fun” sort of energy to the summer BBQ.

Every year I swear that I’ll do less. I’ll pull back. I’ll put the phone down. I’ll say ‘yes’ to fewer things I don’t actually want to do. I’ll be in the moment. I’ll feel the warm granules of sand between my toes. I’ll savour petrichor and breathe in its earthy scent deeply, soundly. Maybe it’s because I’m permanently in the mindset that the busy aspects of life are still built around the school year (September feels like fresh pencils and new beginnings, June feels like sunshine and the exciting feeling of newfound freedom) but every summer I think that it means I don’t have to work and I can just relax. Of course, that isn’t true for me. My particular job does not give me the summer off. 

And maybe making a convenient little check list flies in the face of a laissez-faire and lazy summer attitude but what can I say I bring a certain “organized fun is fun” sort of energy to the party. 

Most evenings I have to fight the challenge to fill my time with *something*. I rarely give myself the opportunity to do strictly nothing. Why is it that some of us are just genetically predisposed to fill our time despite feeling constantly exhausted? Can anyone relate? Is this thing on? *taps mic* 

All I do know is that I find slowing down to be inherently uncomfortable and diametrically opposed to my very essence. Which is to say that that probably means I can learn a lot from leaning into and learning how to do it. 

So here’s an Overachiever’s Underachieving Summer Bucket List: 

1. Sleep in

2. Find bliss in a cup of ice cream, eaten on a grassy hill

3. Go to a park on a warm night just to stargaze 

4. Eat an entire pint of cherries

5. Do a cannonball, body of water player’s choice 

6. Run through a water park 

7. Make this tomato salad 

8. Go for a neighbourhood drive, windows down, at dusk

9. Campfire + hot dog

10. Fall asleep on the patio 

11. Admire the wrinkles, feeling endlessly elegant in a new linen shirt

12. Skinny dip (hehe)

13. Enjoy an Eras Tour livestream