Summer Approaches

This school year is on notice: there are two weeks left before the grand chaos of activity that is summer begins! Now, most of you who are reading this know that I am a teacher and perhaps can't quite bring yourself to see how my summer could be a chaos of activity. After all, don't teachers have the summer off?
The myth of teachers having the summer "off," like the myth that single people have more time, is far too common. Somehow, people think that because teachers don't have students, we aren't working. I can easily dispel the myth of summers off by simple observation. I'm going to spend half of my summer at school, preparing for the coming school year. When I'm not planning for next year, I'm going to be work on graduate classes, and in my spare time, I'll be working on personal projects and taking a mission trip to Romania. It all adds up to a summer that will be just as busy as the school year, if not possibly busier.
So, my summer is not going to be a summer "off," a summer of sleeping in and relaxing and not accomplishing anything useful. Far from it. I'll be working just as hard as the next man in the summer, perhaps harder. So, enjoy your summer and the relaxation that will come with it. I'll be busy living out proof that teachers do not have summer off.