The Duel Against Summer Depression 🤺

I never knew that Summer Depression was a thing.

When folks would talk about seasonal depression I just assumed the season was always winter, and for a long time I couldn’t understand the concept of it.

How could the weather make you depressed?

All of my peers would discuss the veil of sadness lifting with every climbing degree, meanwhile I could feel parts of myself dying inside.

I love the sunshine but something about the heat! That God forsaken heat plus the pressure to be outside and do something makes me feel so drained and down overall.

Like do I love the outdoors? Yes.

But I don’t like being told to go have fun in it!

You should happen upon the fun naturally!

The weather shouldn’t force you!

However, I’m on a lifelong journey to peace or whatever and i’ve never actually tried managing these summer blues other than sleeping them away (which is all you really can do sometimes).

SO I’ve decided to challenge my summer depression to a Gentleman’s Duel and you are all my witnesses.

I’ll make a list of all the things about Summer that get me down, and find a way to annihilate each one on every warm day this year. And because i’m a brute force maximalist when it comes to self-care i’mm going to list them all here!

Historically aggravating things about Summer:

• bugs

• sweat

• no cozy soups

• no costume/gift holidays

• bad hair days

• mosquito bites

• structureless time

Hyper-positive plan of attack:

• BUGS/BUG BITES

  • Bug Sprays, avoiding highly buggy areas?

• SWEAT

  • 2 showers a day, high quality deodorants, drink loads of water!

• NO COZY SOUP

  • Make cozy salads and smoothies! Cold things are fun too! (eheh)

• NO COSTUMES/GIFT HOLIDAYS

  • Dress up / make costumes anyways! give gifts just because!

• BAD HAIR DAYS

  • embrace the frizz or just have fun with braids, buns, and wigs!

• AIMLESS TIME

  • This is my first summer of working outside of the academic calendar year! Embrace the structure and make time for fun!

I have no words of promise, only this:

It’s very important to me to have fun with the things that otherwise feel like crap.

I’ll still have bad and sad days but I think it’s nice to aim high when it comes to taking care of yourself. It’s unrealistic to think that I’ll spend every waking moment beating back bad thoughts but I like to think if I make a little happiness cheat-sheet while i’m not in the depths of my emotions, it’ll be easier to refer back to when I need it.

Like insurance, or something.