Really, summer isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. It’s hot, it’s humid, it’s miserable, and we’re either stuck inside with nothing to do or trapped with idiotic coworkers at some menial job that pays less than minimum wage.

When people say that summer’s relaxing, they’re referring to the ones where people actually had vacation — the public school years. Now, it’s just another season, and we don’t really get time off, we just go from one boring hell to another. All the fun and the magic is gone, left behind for children and teenagers, not adults.

Yeah, I’m bitter and a summer Grinch. I can’t help it. I’ve always hated the heat, savoring instead the cold of winter and howling blizzards. I go into hibernation during the summer, distracted by the horrific stickiness and heat, unable to focus or care about anything that doesn’t drive me insane. I lounge around on the couch, bored out of my skull, but too hot to do anything. I turn snappish and irritable, shouting at everyone from my mother to my dog. I resent having nothing to do, I don’t like being taken out of comfortable surroundings for a trip to the mountains or some other punishment in the torture chamber that is “The Great Outdoors,” and I’m generally hellish to be around until August, when school starts again and I can return to air conditioning.

I really don’t get why everyone’s so excited, unless they have something to do. For me, summer is when my brain atrophies and withers away because I’m not learning anything. I’m stuck at home, annoyed with the world and everything and everyone in it, and I hate everything that people try to get me to do. The weather’s never right for swimming; hiking and camping should be considered violations of the Geneva Convention; none of the jobs I want to work are available and the ones that are have lousy pay and don’t even require the brains of a sea sponge to accomplish; I’m surrounded by members of my graduating class, whom I really wish would all just stay away when I’m trapped in town.

It’s only going to get worse once I graduate. From then on, I’ll spend my summers trapped in a dead-end job, just like the rest of the year, staring enviously at little kids as they shoot hoops or draw pictures with sidewalk chalk as I leave in the morning and return in the evening.  I will probably resent my own children when they get off school and can relax, and I will never be able to put aside being a mom, not even for an hour. Let’s face it: summer stops being fun the year you turn 18. It was made for children, not grown-ups.

Don’t even get me started on summer fashions. I’m too short to pull off all the dresses I want to wear, and the ones I can wear make me look 14, meaning no one takes me seriously. I get laughed out of job interviews, people ask, “Is your mother home?” when I answer the door, and people are convinced that I have a fake ID.

Winter, on the other hand, is amazing. Yes, it’s cold, but that means you can warm up inside, and every place has heating, whereas not every building has air conditioning. I love sweaters that cling to my figure, highlighting my chest and slender waist. I love warming up with a hot bath, coffee or hot chocolate. I love reading in bed as it snows during the night. I love how beautiful everything looks when the world is in shades of white, gray, and blue. I’m in school much of the time, or helping out at home for the holidays, so I always have something to do, a task to occupy my hands and a puzzle to keep my brain in working order. In summer, I spend wherever I am wishing I were somewhere else and doing something else.

Call me crazy, call me a whiner, or call me just plain idiotic. I have never liked warm weather and I’m already counting down the days until the leaves start changing colors again. The world is beautiful and colorful in summer, yes, but it seems like it’s mocking me, rubbing my nose in the fact that other people enjoy what causes me pain. You can do what you want after finals, but not everyone likes summer, just saying. I just hate it.

Allison Chase is a junior Creative Writing major. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com.

In Brief:

There are some drawbacks to summer, keep in mind.

Not everyone enjoys the warm weather or the lack of classes.

There are preferences for everyone, and for me, that’s winter.