BLAIR BRYANT NICHOLS
A make-out session with the Southern summer intern; the Bolivian who liked PDA all over from Georgetown to Dupont; the 32-year-old who was a recovering alcoholic and former smoker; the charming stripper-slash-Home Depot salesman.
What do these all have in common? They are all just a sampling of my former summer flings. The variety of people that come in and out of our lives and bedrooms during the summer is truly amazing. There is something about the heat and lack of academic responsibility that leaves the doors and windows of our un-airconditioned hearts wide open.
There is something intoxicating about summer romance. The nights seem endless and we can't see through the haze or heat of the days to determine if we are making mistakes. New jobs and locations offer new chances to meet a fresh pair of hands to spread lotion on our backs. When one fling ends, we move lazily to the next. Sometimes it's hard to determine whether they ever really happened to begin with. Did I imagine the blonde, blue-eyed Duke graduate who was heading to Columbia for law school in the fall? He certainly seemed real enough, as did the dinner in Dupont and the bottle of wine. But in the early morning light these heated summer passions can seem like feverish hallucinations.
The summer before was the banker. I didn't want to fall for him; He was still disentangling his current breakup, he lived in an undesirable area that was next to impossible for me to get to and he seemed to be depressed about something all the time. But I couldn't help it; I wanted him, and the summer was fading into fall, so I had to act fast. So I had him, the August before sophomore year. It didn't take long to unravel, though, and my summer love cooled under the changing leaves of late September. Yet sometimes I still get an "I love u" text message from him late at night. Some burns never fade.
And just as summer can bring us to new and exciting lovers, it can also bring some of our old ones back. For those that choose to spend their summers back at home, it's only a matter of time before you run into that certain someone. Maybe it was the hometown sweetheart who stole your heart and broke your hymen, or the girl who gave you pointers in the backseat of your car. Summer affords the opportunity to reconnect with former flames in a more intimate way. Sometimes we'll fall into the trap of rekindling the flame that had been snuffed when we went to school. You must remember that summer's heat will quickly frost over when distance rears its head again in the fall.
Summer loves can be some of the best of your lifetime and there is one very easy explanation for that: they're temporary. When your days are focused on simple jobs and your nights are free to love, then it's easy to fall fast and hard. But like every wonderful dream burst by the reality of consciousness, when the illusion of summer bliss shatters, you are left with only your memories and hopefully a little sand in your underwear.
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't allow yourself to fall for the siren's call of summer lovin'. Go for that fellow camp counselor you've had your eye on since middle school. Pursue the mysterious summer sub-letter in your building. You never know what will happen. It could be over before it begins, or the it could be the spark that lasts a lifetime.
My final advice for a sexy summer is to keep these things in mind: A large blanket and a careful lover are recommended for on the beach lovin'. Summer supervisors may be sexy but remember that these jobs can count as much as during the school year, so be cautious. Those you meet on vacation or who are only around for the summer may not always be who they say they are. You may want to check ID before you unintentionally touch a minor in his or her bathing suit area. Finally, as I said before, don't get too invested in what could only be temporary. There is SPF for your skin, but not for your heart.
