“The warmest season of the year is already so extraordinary in itself that it’d only be fair to also leave uplifting activities for the other seasons,” writes Design Stories columnist Hanna-Katariina Mononen.
I WANT TO BEGIN by confessing something. I spent almost the whole of my long-awaited summer vacation indoors, installing ceiling paneling in every room, cupboard and nook in my home. After working around the clock for quite some time, I was using the combination saw on such autopilot that a health and safety representative would’ve had something to say about it. There were days when I didn’t leave home at all, maybe thinking that the more, the faster.
After this experience, I try to tell myself – and not feel bitter – that perhaps the time of the year gradually offering crisp mornings is just the season I’ve been waiting for. After all, summer is an overly-romanticized season, a utopia of fleeting possibilities, and somehow always too warm, sticky, hectic and bright. And, especially to us who have grown up in the north, a bit unfamiliar and unreal.
If I’m not careful, I often end up making a fundamental mistake when planning my life: putting all my hopes and dreams into one month. Typically, summer vacation is considered the time to realize all the ideas, do all the nice and interesting things and make all the trips we have thought of in the course of the year. However, this model of operating is unsustainable, for it just cannot be that one month out of twelve is for enjoying yourself and the remaining eleven are for waiting. If I were a statistician, I’d provide this text with a graph showing how utterly insane that way of living is. The warmest season of the year is already so extraordinary in itself that it’d only be fair to also leave uplifting activities for the other seasons.
“It just cannot be that one month out of twelve is for enjoying yourself and the remaining eleven are for waiting.”
I’m now gradually returning to work, to routines and structure, and even though I wouldn’t perhaps call myself relaxed, I did, nevertheless, have a vacation. Despite the fact that my vacation days were sweaty, numbing and filled with incredibly poorly scheduled work, I have to admit that summer does have a certain magic to it. Every single time, returning from summer vacation is associated with the same delusion; the belief that everything good in life ends the second the alarm goes off on the first Monday of returning to work. And no wonder, after spending our lives waiting for the summer vacation.
That’s why it’s time we reprogram ourselves. There are great things ahead. Eleven wonderful months. Summer parties that were not held in the summer will be organized in the fall instead. Interrail trips will be planned for mid-winter. November is now for enjoying spontaneous get-togethers, February for taking a road trip to the countryside and March for grilling.
We should enjoy ourselves while we can. Next year’s summer vacation is just around the corner.
My recommendation: Film festivals
“FALL IS ALSO a great season because in addition to many other events, we get to enjoy the offering of skillfully curated film festivals. Wandering from one movie theater to another is like traveling from one imaginary world to another – and what’s best, you get to spend the night at home.”
• Love & Anarchy, Helsinki International Film Festival, 15–25 September 2022
The author, Hanna-Katariina Mononen, reflects on the issues of a beautiful and sustainable life in her monthly column for Design Stories. She thinks that just like in life, in the home, the most beautiful parts are unplanned – and often relatively ordinary as well.
Text and image: Hanna-Katariina Mononen