When Summer Is the Hard Season

We plan for the season we fear and get surprised by the one we love.

By Neil Solomon · 2 min read

Picture a couple named Frank and Helen. They moved to a northern city expecting the winter to be the hard part. They bought warm coats and a good lamp. Then June came, and neither of them could sleep.

I like stories like this because they flip an assumption. We plan for the season we fear and get surprised by the one we love.

Light that does not end

Iceland and Estonia. In three of the stories, the same surprise appears. People expected the long dark of winter to be harder. Instead they found the bright nights of summer more tiring. Sleep gets thin, and the body does not know when to stop. Each writer says it with a note of surprise, and none of them is complaining about the place. They are describing something that did not fit what they had imagined.

What I take from this is that winter at least has a clear rule: stay in, rest, light a lamp. Endless summer light has no such rule. The day just keeps going.

Heat that keeps you in

Cyprus. The opposite problem is described in one story: a summer spent indoors with the air conditioner running. The sun is strong, the village is still, and the easy choice is to stay inside. For someone who moved for the outdoors, that can feel like being cooped up.

What I make of it

Frank might say, "I had a blackout curtain for winter. I needed it in June." Helen would answer, "And I wanted to go out, and it was too hot to try."

Both extremes ask for a plan. Heavy curtains, an eye mask, a routine that ends the day on purpose. Or early mornings and late evenings outside, and a cool room in between.

I would not choose a place by its winter alone. A full year in it tells more. I think the honest question is which season you can bear at its most extreme, because every place has one.