The Halfway Point
A Few Learnings + A (very light) July Schedule
Tonight at midnight marks the (always imperfectly-measured) halfway point of 2025. Not that that signifies anything particularly important, but since I’m writing something anyway, here we are.
I spent the summer solstice, and a number of days on either side of it, in the Pacific Northwest, where it gets light at 5 and dark close to 10. The spacious days, as well as the vast majority of those days being spent outside, looking at the kinds of trees I’ve only ever really dreamed of, made the transition into summer proper feel a little more open, a little less pressured than in years past.
The biggest thing I’ve learned in this first half of this year, logistically-speaking anyway, has to do with my preferences around time. I wrote a little while ago about how choice is what I’m looking for in terms of my flexible time; it’s one of those things that I figured out but didn’t know I figured out until I started talking about it. Spring break was this way; summer has been this way; this pretty ambitious hiking trip (more on that later) has been this way. This strikes me as so highly logical it’s perhaps obvious; I work in one of the most rigidly scheduled professions out there (there are ones that are worse, and higher stakes; I’m not trying to argue that point), and I want distinctly not that when I’m not actively in the work of it.
Still, my itineraries for my off time tend to be similar in octane to my work life, intentionally or not. It’s the “work hard, play hard” mentality (minus the alcohol, I think). I like to make the most of my time; the concept of a resort or beach trip without activities feels perplexing to me (I can lay on the couch and read at home). But the thing that feels positively suffocating about flexible time, whether that’s at home, away from home, or honestly, at work (on my planning time) is being on someone else’s schedule when I didn’t plan to be or don’t want to be.
Out of 10 days of hiking, we had exactly 2.5 places that we had to be at a specific time. Everything else was a list of possible trails, an alarm I set myself (and ignored if I felt like it), and the freedom of a car with good gas mileage. We got all 2.5 places with perfect timing, and they were all worth it. I also did not want any more of them.
So as I look ahead to the second half of this year calendar year, I’m thinking about these questions:
How do I get outside more? Even when it’s hot and miserable. Even when I’m tired. Even when I have a thousand other things to do.
How do schedule appropriate amounts of less-structured activities?
How do I create pockets of unstructured time even within a rigid schedule?
I’d love to hear what’s shifted for you in this first half of 2025, and what you’re thinking about moving into summer and the second half.
I’m traveling or otherwise committed the majority of weekends in July, which is an occupational hazard of the summer and a half-education, half-regular-job household. One class, Sunday 7/13, hope to see you there!
