Take the Summer Off

I graduated in 1987 and decided to take the summer off.  I had worked since I was 15 and studied for so long, I just wanted to do nothing.  Although we still had a couple of months left on the apartment at the University, I moved in with Hubby near his project.  After a few discussions, he agreed I didn’t have to work immediately as long as I took care of the housework.  To be honest, I’m not even sure of what I did during that summer, but it was a gift I thoroughly took advantage of.

I actually took the concept from the fact that my mom gave the summer after high school graduation off to my older sister.  Mom had told her that she could do what she wanted until September 1.  By then she had to have a job or be in college.  After high school, I knew I was going to college and didn’t have the option of taking off, I needed to earn money for books and tuition.    For the next five years, I carried a full load and worked at least 20 hours a week during the school year and had a full time job each summer.  There was no down time, until that summer off.

Hubby on the other hand never really got to have any down time.  Once he began University he was studying and working as a grad assistant.  Then he taught for several semesters.  Then he worked at a job that was essentially 7 days a week. For 32 years.  When he finally retired, after talking about it for almost a decade I swooped him away for some down time.  He didn’t know quite what to do with himself.  I on the other hand had 30 years of plans to choose from.  Within days of his last work day, we boarded a train to Chandigarh.  The first two nights we stayed at a friend’s hotel that had a suite with a private pool.  Hubby and I basically stayed in the room and ate pakoras and soaked in that small pool.  I could feel years of responsibility and attention directed elsewhere slowly begin to crack and float away from my husband’s shoulders.  For the first time ever, there were no calls to make, there were no decisions awaiting his stamp.  There was just time to be. 

On the 2nd morning, we got in a car and went up to Simla and stayed at The Cecil.  It is one of our favorite hotels.  Since it is an Oberoi hotel the service and food are are beyond reproach.  The room was plush and comfy.  We then just did whatever we wanted.  If we wanted to sleep in we slept in.  When we wanted to go to the Mall we went and looked around and people watched.  We sat outside a restaurant eating pakoras and sloughed off all of the city tensions. 

Eventually, we had to return to Delhi NCR and its 40 million people.  But over the next few months our life became happily busy with trips with friends to Kerala and Sri Lanka.  We had holidays, birthdays and weddings to celebrate. In between the functions and events we took the time to think of how we wanted the next stage of our life to be.  As Hubby learned to slow his pace a bit and dealt with the emotions that all retired people go through, I prepared trips and events for him and I to reconnect.  His summer off turned into six months as he began looking into projects that challenged and excited him.  As a last hurrah for his “summer off”, I took him on a road trip in the US.  Two weeks, just the two of us, driving around, seeing part of the Bourbon Trail, Space Museum in Huntsville, New Orleans, Graceland, The Gateway Arch.  We visited family and friends.  When we came back he was refreshed and relaxed as he dived into his new projects, but at a comfortable pace.  No longer was he switched on 24/7.  He had seen the benefits of family and me time.  He could go and work on things that intrigued him instead of meeting quotas and others expectations.  He was a renewed man and could finally understand how important it is to have a summer off.

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