It hits, annually, about this time of year.
Could be the third week of August; at times, earlier. It hurts. You feel it. It’s that time of the year; summer is, again, nearing its end.
Now, calendrically, there is still a good month left to the season, but the signs are showing up now. Naturally. Last night the thermometer dipped to single digits. All those events you had lined up over the summer are done. Most of the produce has been picked from the garden, and the flowers don’t boast that friendly same fresh appearance.
As a Gemini, summer is the first season I experienced. My childhood memories are full of summer: bikes rides, sailing, water skiing, days at the beach (because the beach was right there). Family vacations, camping our way across Canada; sweltering in the family station wagon in the days before air-conditioning. My first summer job, and the one that followed; my 17th summer remains one of my most memorable. Decades later, as a parent, I shared many similar memories with my daughter.
I believe my life is marked by summer. It is, or has always been, my season. Mid-August, to me, has always marked its end.
As a kid, even a teenager, it was knowing you were going back to school in a matter of weeks. You tried, especially as a teen, to squeeze a little more life into summer, staying up later, pushing the boundaries of your curfew or lamenting that baseball season was over.
Summer is a feeling, more than a season.
Now, as a full-fledged adult (I recently celebrated my 65th summer) I’m feeling it a little more. There is less to look forward to: no new classes, no new back-to-school wardrobe. Yes, it has been like this for a couple of years, but it hits a little harder, as a senior citizen, this year.
These past couple of days I’ve been rather lethargic, even unmotivated. I’ve struggled to even do the stuff that I enjoy doing.
For the longest time I’ve associated Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) with winter but for me, I can feel there is a tinge of depression that comes with the end of summer. I’m even feeling it a good month before it happens.
Yes, right now, I am stuck in the sadness of summer.
© 2026 j.g. lewis
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