Summer seems to fly by faster every year

By Trent Modglin

Somewhere along the line, I blinked and June and July were gone. August I only faintly remember. My summer simply up and vanished — to quote one of my favorite movies, “The Shawshank Redemption” — like a fart in the wind.

Trying to balance two jobs and maintain a social life can do that to a person, but honestly, where did it all go, and why does it go by so much faster now that I’m a bit older?

I had things to do, places to visit, chores to accomplish, my parents’ boat sitting on a lake in Wisconsin, begging me to take it for a spin more than once or twice.

Hiking with my brother and his wife in Colorado? Never happened.

Playing more golf than I did the year before? Yeah, right.

Relaxing in a beer garden with a group of friends on a random Tuesday night? OK, maybe a few times, but not often enough.

Taking a Saturday to purposely do as close to absolutely nothing as possible? Hardly. I barely found time to get a sunburn.

If this is life as an adult, as a 30-year-old, I’m beginning to wonder if I want any part of it. What happened to the days when you could make a phone call in the afternoon to easily round up a large group to do something that night? Nowadays, you have to check with people a month in advance to see if they’re free on a Thursday, and they have to do the same with you.

Anyway, with the window of summer weather rapidly closing on our fingers, I decided to ask fellow Chicagoans about something they wanted to do this summer but never got around to accomplishing for the Chicago Speaks department. You can find it on page 18, and the only solace I take from asking the question is that it made people at least as equally frustrated as I was realizing it’s already the September issue.

And speaking of this issue, it’s loaded with good stuff, with everything from a diary of an entire day riding the Red Line to a handful of new bars worth checking out to a couple of Boston-themed plays in Chicago and a travel guide to Brazil and Peru. Enjoy, and don’t forget to get out and enjoy the sun while it’s still there.

Trent Modglin
Publisher
The Real Chicago
Trent@TheRealChicago.org

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