Dearly beloved:

We have gathered here today to mourn the loss of a dear friend. We will bid our final adieus and commence a period of grievance. The grievance may last anywhere from weeks to years ‘ that’s an issue you’ll have to deal with individually. Alas, summer vacation, it is time for you to leave this eternal world, for at least I will never see you again.

I’m not just talking about, ‘oh, no, back to school time,’ and last-minute voyages across the Caribbean to insert-luxurious-island-of-your-choice. I’m talking about the fact that as a senior in college, I will never know a summer vacation again. Because, after all, if not in the school system, what exactly is a summer vacation? The only summer vacation I can imagine myself having is a timely coincidence of it being both summer and myself being unemployed.

In fact, seasonal festivities are entirely structured around the school calendar. Now that, come May, I will no longer be a part of this calendar system, am I subject to let go of these unofficial celebrations?

For instance, Memorial Day, the unofficial beginning of summer, falls around the time we get out of school. Labor Day is around when school starts again. Since I’m supposed to be crossing my fingers that I have year-round employment, I should not be hoping to use these non-equinoxes as place marks in my seasonal adventures throughout life.

In fact, I’m supposed to be hoping that summer to me just means praying I’m temping in an air-conditioned office.

Or praying that I can even get a temp job.

Because I’m an English and theatre major.

So, I suppose, come May 2011, I’ll be on permanent summer vacation, which will turn into fall vacation. And winter vacation. And spring vacation. These vacations will be peppered with interim vacations from vacations, and I will call those interim vacations not ’employment’ but ‘small miracles.’ Or large miracles, if the paycheck has zeros before a decimal point.

So perhaps this isn’t farewell to summer vacation. Perhaps my whole life has only been a brief introduction to the world of vacation. And to quote the timeless girl group known as the Go-Gos, ‘Vacation, all I ever wanted.’ And they got the beat, so I’ll trust that their ambitions are worthy of my own, as well.