My first kiss happened in the summer. It was at camp, of course, except I was way too old for it to be my first kiss. I remember the baked heat coming off of the rock I was sitting on. He was sweatier than I was expecting, and I worried that he was thinking the same thing. Luckily, that wasn’t love, just hormones and the wild freedom you feel being away from your home for a little while.
Heat and sun do something to my body that makes it elastic. I can stretch into feelings that I otherwise avoid. I pop back together after things try to pull me apart. This emotional and physical viscosity is why it feels so easy to fall in love in the summertime. All the beginnings of my relationships are jolting, like riding in the back of a pickup with a sticky transmission. I find myself moving at speeds that I usually reserve for emergency situations. Summer’s long, luxurious daylight hours push me to keep moving, to stay out a little later, to take things a little further. After all, what was it that Sandy sang? “Summer lovin’ happened so fast?”
Falling in love in summer is more than just the opening number of Grease. People write, sing, and illustrate summer love so often because just like the year’s warmest season, love always seem to go away too soon.
Now that we are a month into Summer, maybe you have already found someone to go on skinny dip and sno-cone dates with. And if you haven’t, no need to worry, the best of the summer’s fruit always ripens later in the season.
Ice, Ice Baby
Be those people at the sno cone stand or outside of Braum’s on a steamy summer night. Knowing someone’s favorite ice cream flavor is basically the same as knowing what religion they practice. If they are vegan, lactose intolerant or whimsy intolerant you can always have an iced coffee or a beer so cold the mountains are blue.
Just Add Water
If you haven’t learned yet, pop country songs have only a few themes: Revenge, fatherhood, love that happens at a bar and — most importantly — summertime. And when you sing about summertime, you have to sing about bodies of water and what you are wearing when you jump into them. Whether it be an apartment complex pool, a lake full of things that nibble or simply your own trusty shower, getting wet together is guaranteed to lead to getting wet together.
Only Come Out at Night
Though sunny days are an idyllic backdrop for a montage of you getting closer, in the summer they are also a cruel reminder of just how thin our ozone is getting. If you do want to do something outside, wait until that glowing day ball goes down. Otherwise, you will just be two puddles of sweat pretending to enjoy a picnic. Drive-in movies, outdoor concerts, walks on the river, these are all made for those summer nights.
Anyone up?
Unlike revenge porn, staying up late with your crush will deepen your respect for each other as humans. The nights are warm and sun isn’t setting until almost 9 p.m. Have a shot of tequila for energy if you need it. Even if you feel like liquid dog shit the next morning, you will still have that careless feeling like anything is possible when you remember why it is you are so tired.
Get Out of Here
Take a holiday. Leave town and see something new. Respectfully argue over which road trip candy is superior. Listen to podcasts that make you press pause just to hear what he thinks about the topic. Stop at all the weird places and discuss moving to the tiny towns that only exist on highway exit signs. No one knows who the two of you are in a different city, let anonymity be your tour guide.
