How I learned to stop worrying, and love the end of summer

By Laurel Borrowman, Life & Style Editor

If there’s one thing I love about working in a corporate office, it’s the water-cooler talk. Regardless of whether or not there is even a water cooler, there’s still a connotation for meaningless co-worker banter associated with a social middle ground. Maybe in your place it’s the paper shredder, or the ping pong table, or that stupid K-Cup fuelled Kuerig coffee machine that produces nothing but excess packaging.

I digress. The thing about water-cooler talk is that 90 per cent of the time, it revolves around one of three topics:

1. How terrible/terribly hot the weather has been lately.

2. How much our local sporting team rules/sucks.

3. How close summer is/how close summer is to being over.

While it can be pretty benign to discuss the same thing and either bitch or praise that same thing, regardless of how good it is at present, it’s also understandable. I certainly don’t want to get into a heartfelt discussion with my work mates about my negative view on animal agriculture during a quick trip to the bathroom, or while they’re microwaving last night’s stir-fry. That just won’t fly.

But now that August is here, a sub-category to topic number three on the aforementioned list is about to come into conversation.

“I can’t believe it’s August already! Where did this summer go? I feel like it hasn’t even started yet!” And then the conversation continues to September being right around the corner. Before you know it, there you are with that putrid cup of Columbian roast in your paw, and you are running through your Christmas shopping list.

This just in: live in the now! It’s really only August. Relax. Breath. Don’t think only four weeks left to September. Revel in it! Think, still four weeks to September! Rejoice, because there is a lot you can do in this next month. Learn to stop worrying, and love the summer. When some glass-half-empty sucker starts wondering where July went, or ponders in disbelief that these long, warm days are going the way of the brontosaurus too quickly, fight back! Live each day of the summer like there’s still a bunch of days left in the summer.

Here are a few hot tips to put in your water-cooler arsenal.

1. Use your weeknights as though they are weekends. Don’t think that just because you work during the day, that you can’t use those hours before or after. For example, when the sun started beaming so nicely back in July, I started to wear my bathing suit under my work clothes (FYI slacks are way more bearable when you know you can be beach-ready at the simple zip-of-the-pant. Plus, you’ll feel like Superman.). I leave the house for work with sunscreen, a towel, my shorts, and a book, and go directly to the park or beach when I’m done work. I’ve clocked as much mid-week beach time as weekend beach time, and thus, have so much summer left!
2. If you have pressing things to take care of, like errands, or jobs, or activities, or chores, or duties, or obligations, do those things at times when the sun is not drenching this magnificent city with its vitamin D-filled rays. Do those things when it’s dark out, rainy out, or cold out. Those days will come. Take advantage of the sun while it’s here, and you will have so much summer left!
3. Go on an adventure somewhere that you haven’t been. It’s easy to think that you are only doing something with your summer if you are going out of town every weekend to someplace far away. Or taking week-long vacations to Beverly Hills Lake in the Okanagan. Those things can be fun, but they aren’t necessary. Take a day trip to Bowen Island, or an afternoon in Steveston. There are a lot of very accessible, very cheap things you can do that make your day longer. And you’ll feel like you have done so much with your summer!

As I finish this, I realize that I do a lot to make the most of these warm months, but can also use a reminder that I need not fall into that water-cooler rut either. I guarantee it will rain sometime in the next three weeks, validating topic number one. I assure you, the Whitecaps will take this city on an emotional rollercoaster ride many times over in the next few months, and then the Canucks will be back in action before long, validating topic number two. At least when it comes to topic number three, you’ve got a few verbal weapons in your arsenal now.

Go forth! Enjoy that banter, because you’ve got nothing to worry about. Learn to stop, and start loving the summer.