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David Burke dburke@media.ucla.edu Click Here for more articles by David Burke  

Every year, college students receive an enormous gift. The gift is more precious than money or a new car or even straight A’s. Once students graduate, they will probably not have another gift like it for 40 or 50 years.

Unfortunately, many people don’t recognize that it is a gift, and they run the risk of squandering it. With this article, I hope to awaken people and help them recognize their gift. The gift that I am writing about is summer.

When most people think of summer, they think of heat, bathing suits and TV reruns. When I think of summer, I think of opportunities and choices. Every student has to choose between two very different options. The first option for students is to continue down their path of education and direct preparation for “the real world.” I call this path “the practical summer.”

During the school year, students are taking classes and possibly working or holding an internship in order to prepare themselves for getting a full-time job after college or for graduate school. Summer is an opportunity to continue down that path. It is a chance to pad your resume with an internship or a job. It might be a chance to take summer school classes and lighten your load during the school year or graduate earlier than you normally would. A job, an internship or summer school are the paths that most students do take during their summer, and there’s no problem with that, per se.

Although the path of “the practical summer” has its merits, I think there is another way to enjoy this time that might be more meaningful and enjoyable.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote that, “most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.” Unfortunately, I think that many people who choose to pursue the practical summer are occupying themselves with these factitious cares. “The divine summer” is a chance to escape from those cares and pluck the finer fruits of life. By pursuing new experiences and expanding knowledge in areas you care about, you can approach divinity. The finer fruits of life, of course, mean different things for different people. But there are some activities that I think access those finer fruits better than others. Exploring nature or exploring other parts of the world are great ways to enjoy “the divine summer.” They are especially apt for UCLA students who are immersed in a college pseudo-culture of its own that is centered in a sprawling and bustling megalopolis.

Watching television or “getting buff,” on the other hand, are not the best ways to pluck the finer fruits of life. Going camping, fishing, or taking hikes through the local mountains and forests are activities that Thoreau would look kindly upon.

Another way to enjoy “the divine summer” is through reading, perhaps the most widely underrated recreational activity (competing with playing video games and watching sitcoms, some of the most overrated). I agree with Thoreau that for everyone, “the book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones.” “The divine summer” is an opportunity to discover these types of books and immerse yourself in them. You can expand your knowledge in any area of interest or any area of study.

“The divine summer” does not have to be solely intellectual and lofty. It should be fun too. Thoreau once wrote of slavery that, “there are so many keen and subtle masters … worst of all when you are slave-driver of yourself.” “The divine summer” is a chance to do just the opposite. Instead of being your own slave-driver you can be the beach-going, basketball-playing, barbeque-attending, trip-taking and friend-visiting fun-driver of yourself.

Summer’s most attractive benefit is its freedom. It gives you a chance to exclusively spend time doing the things that you never had time to do during school. Once you graduate and get a job, summers won’t be the same until you retire, so you should enjoy this time while you can. This is probably the last time in our young lives that we can bask in the choice between these two summers. In “the real world,” the choice is already made for us.

“The practical summer” may indeed be more practical, but if you can, I think you should give at least some aspects of divinity a try; it can be infinitely more memorable and meaningful than a six-week class or a mediocre job.