During the summer, I often wish I was European.

The reason is simple: European workers receive four to five weeks of paid vacation each year. In the U.S., the average worker receives a measly two weeks.

I actually get three weeks of vacation, and when I learned that I’d finally graduated from two weeks to three, I did a dance of joy. It was the happiest day of my working life. So just imagine the celebration that will occur when I actually get four weeks — I’ve already started counting down the years.

To me, summer is a time for leisure, not sitting in a cubicle staring at a computer.

When I think of summer, I think of long days and warm weather, sitting outside and relaxing. I think of the public lake where my friends and I used to swim, dive and jump off the raft, build sand castles and play water games such as Marco Polo. I think of trips to the ocean and our friends’ lake cabin, with its canoes, hammock and floating basketball hoop. I think of camping trips with my family and summer camp and playing badminton on the front lawn.

Summer still makes me think of these things, despite the fact that it’s been years since I’ve been able to spend an entire summer just loafing around and having fun. Oh, it’s usually possible to take a week off, or a nice three- or four-day weekend, and in past years, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time in Maine. But this year I am hoarding the rest of my dwindling supply of vacation like precious metals, and will not be taking much time off at all. And so as I drive from work to home and back again, I’ve begun to ask some questions, like:

Just what is summer all about, anyway?

And: If I can’t spend all of my waking hours doing all of the summery things I love to do, . . . is it really summer?

And: Am I wasting my life?

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

I guess you could say that even though it’s summer, I feel like I’m missing summer. Though in some ways I’m lucky. I managed to prolong the endless summers of childhood longer than most people, by working at summer camp during college. I didn’t make much money, but I got to live in the woods and go swimming every day. At the time it seemed like a reasonable trade-off, and my friends and I would talk earnestly about our dream to open a year-round camp, and work at camp for the rest of our lives.

Of course, none of us followed through on this. When push came to shove, we all went out and got real jobs, although my friend Adam is still gamely pursuing a degree in outdoor recreation. The only person I know who has been able to turn a love of summer camp into a full time career is my sister, who recently started a year-round camp directing job with the Girl Scouts. She’s living in a yurt on a lake in New Hampshire with her cat, and no doubt serving as an inspiration to hundreds of youths.
Yup, my sister is living the dream.

Initially, I was jealous.

But I soon realized that working at camp for the summer has its pitfalls.

For one thing, you can’t take a summer vacation.

I learned this when I called my sister and told her that I would be at our parents’ house in Maine over July 4th. “You should come visit,” I said. “I can’t,” she said. “I have to work.” “Why did you take that stupid job?” I asked. “Now I won’t be able to see you!”

This conversation made me realize that I’ve actually outgrown working at summer camp. It’s no longer my dream job. I don’t want to live in a yurt with my cats. I don’t have the energy to run around with campers all day, or share a bathhouse with a zillion other people.

Most of all, I don’t want to give up the endless opportunities summer presents. I want to be able to go to Maine, or the mountains, or a friend’s house or a wedding. There’s plenty to do, and I want to do as much of it as I can. Which means that I’m always trying to make the most of my limited leisure time, and that I go to great lengths to take advantage of it.

THIS IS THE LIFE

The other night, I left work and drove an hour so I could hang out with friends on Lake Luzerne.
We had a picnic on the water. I swam and dived off the raft. We played some badminton. Then we took out a paddle boat. “Can I bring a beer on this boat?” I asked. “Sure,” my friend said, handing me a life preserver. How fun! I thought, grabbing my beer and putting on the life preserver. Drinking beer and paddle boating —now there’s something you can’t do at summer camp.

It was a good time, and I realized that summer will always have its own special magic, even if I don’t have as much vacation as I would like and spend three-quarters of my time in an office. I don’t know if other people feel this way, but while surfing the Web, I stumbled across this astonishing fact: Approximately one-third of employed adults in the U.S. don’t even use all of their vacation time.

Funny, but I’ve never had that problem.

Foss Forward makes a weekly appearance in print, in The Gazette’s Saturday Lifestyles section.