I spent the past several days out of office on a getaway to a coastal town. Salt air, a dog-friendly airbnb, and a no-rush approach to soaking in the things the town has to offer made it a perfect mid-August trip. I have been guilty of wondering if I could move here, a place I’ve been before on vacation; I need to remind myself that my problems would still exist, even if the locations were different. On a different note, I’m a strong fan of the staycation or being a tourist in your own town. You can spend a lifetime in some spots without ever seeing all it has to offer, or without taking advantage of local “best of” lists. Whether you are going around the corner or around the world, here are a few suggestions on how to make your vacation spot feel like home and how to bring that sense of your getaway back with you.

As I adjust my musical earworm from “June is Bustin Out All Over” from Carousel to “In July” from Sara Bareilles, I’m bracing myself for a bit of a chaotic few days to come. The East coast, like the rest of the country, spent the last week or so in extreme weather – here, meaning thunderstorms, wind, hail, and possible tornado activity – only to have a weekend of thunderstorms to come. And what would this all be without poor air quality due to the Canadian wildfires? Sounds like a good excuse to stay in the air conditioning here, my friends. 

Earlier this week, I was working on my computer when I heard a loud sound, almost like an old-fashioned police siren winding up and down. It was clearly from some distance away but becoming closer. Curious, I peered down the street to find an excited elementary schooler pumping his fist and making his way home from his last day of school on his bike, blaring some kind of celebratory siren. I immediately started to smile, remembering that same joy from my childhood: the yearbooks we signed with H.A.G.S., the excitement of being able to sleep in and watch cartoons, the freedom from homework and assignments. Even if we are still in school, or tied to our assignments, I hope we can still recapture that overwhelming joy.

I think I suffer from something I call “Recovering New Jersey Kid Summer Syndrome.” We never got out of school until late in June – I think I graduated high school on something like June 22nd? – so you basically get 9 weeks of summer, fewer if you have an activity that started before the academic year. I’d find myself at Fourth of July anxiously crying to who ever would listen “summer’s basically over already!” Now that I’m an adult, and no longer teaching at a school, the year progresses differently. It’s less about the days remaining until the school bus pulls up and more about the seasonal joys.

I write this, freshly returned from my first-ever ASCO conference. ASCO is the American Society for Clinical Oncology and I was there to greet patient advocates, pharmaceutical companies, and oncology workers as a representative of Cactus Cancer Society. It was overwhelming, to be frank: there were so many exhibitors and the conference space with massive (I don’t think I ever found one side wall!) But it was so wonderful to connect with other patient advocacy groups and tell people about the incredible community here.