Dear Reader,
I heard a song on social media saying something about “Just let August be August.” I am all for that, except this August is just really hot. I struggle with change and adapting to change, and I really struggle with the month of August. It is not quite a fall month, and it is not quite a summer month either. I think for my parents’ generation August was a summer month without a doubt, because school didn’t start until September. But for my generation, we kind of got mixed signals, because school started halfway through August, which traditionally school starts in the fall, but hot summer weather lasted up until maybe the last week of August (honestly, in Florida we have summer weather until mid-October). So, we have been socially programmed to now think that August belongs to the Fall months, when it really belongs to the summer months. All because the general school schedule changed over the course of a generation, and no one wants to admit to kids that they are being forced to go to school even when it is still technically summer. And I am not really even sure why this has stressed me out since I was a child, because I was homeschooled, and we almost never started school at the same time as the public schools, anyways. So, can we just all agree on what August actually is before we just let it be? I would appreciate that.
But if we are going to let August be August, let it be a summer month, because it’s hot like a summer month. I feel like everyone just tries to survive August, at least on the ranch. Most of the time, we are looking forward to any promise of cooler weather, or pumpkin spice if you are like my sister. I was rudely awakened on Sunday morning by my sister loudly exclaiming from the kitchen that we only had one more month until pumpkin spice season; siblings born in October are a breed of their own. But sometimes I feel a little bad for August because it gets trampled over by people trying to get fall, or it gets trampled on by angry children and begrudging college students because it means an end to their freedom. But mostly on the ranch, August is just another hot month before we start the downhill roll towards winter where we will be complaining that it is just so cold.
August for me, though. is a month of preparation for the fall months. Not in the sense of storing up things for winter, but in the sense of getting all my ducks in a row so that I can fully embrace and enjoy fall. So that I can say yes to impromptu ropings and day working. So that I don’t feel like I need to be in the house writing or cleaning when I can be outside enjoying the season that I was obviously designed for. Also, so I can enjoy wearing my sweater and jacket collection that I curate all year (this year I will be debuting my Jane Eyre Sweatshirt). I think I may also feel that August is the time of year to get organized because that is when the Women’s Day magazine would have all of their back-to-school organization tips. (As a child our bathroom reading material was either Women’s Day or Western Horseman, with the occasional Highlights for Children Magazine).
But maybe I am missing the point of the song. Maybe letting August be August means enjoying the last long sunsets of summer and catching fireflies in the warm, wet grass. We can just let August be reading a book while you listen to the storm outside or waiting for your littlest brother and sister come home from camp so they can bug you.
Sincerely,
The Rancher’s Daughter
