The End Is Here

School is done. Third year is over forever. And so now there are no textbooks to read, vocab words to memorize, essays to write, passages to translate, exams to study for. How liberating! But it’s also terrifying like whoa. Every April, I get a little frisson of terror as all the free time starts piling up and I’m not quite sure what to do with it. Somehow, it’s fun to click away an hour on the Internet when the only other option is to do work, but when sunshine and freshly cut grass and the ice cream truck beckon, perusing mommy blogs just doesn’t have the same appeal. And so I socialize to the max, planning lunch dates and tea parties and Skype sessions. There’s lots of talking and giggling and squealing. And after three days of catching up with Rez Friends and School Friends and Home Friends, I’m exhausted, possibly even more than after I wrote my last exam.

And so what is an introvert to do in the long lazy days of perfect weather, before summer plans kick in? I’ve narrowed it down to three brilliantly time-sucking activities.

1. Mainline television shows

I have my shows, like we all do. Back in middle school, the guy sitting beside me in homeroom and I played “Friends Trivia” when we were supposed to be doing creative writing in French. Since then, I’ve had love affairs with The O.C. and Being Erica and Murdoch Mysteries and Big Love and Hart of Dixie and rediscovered my kindergarten infatuation with Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, but I was always very careful to watch in moderation, one episode at a time.

Well, my friends, that has all changed. I have discovered Grey’s Anatomy, all 192 episodes of it. That’s a whole lotta watching to do, and I’ve learned that I’m not so bad at staring, entranced, at my computer screen for hours at a time. I powered through Season 1 (which has, albeit, but 9 episodes) in thirty-six hours, and I’m jonesing for more. It’s bad. I’ve always felt superior to those souls who knock back a series in a week, but I get it now. It’s so easy. You don’t even have to hold up a book, or balance a floppy magazine! You just sit back, press play, and fly away to the dramas of Seattle Grace Hospital.

2. Like, read. Like, for fun.

Books = happy, obvs.

No more pencils doesn’t have mean no more books. I had few friends in grade nine, and so I read almost seventy books. Yes, I kept track. I’ve always been a reader, but now I only have time for what’s on the syllabus. So when I can drag myself away from the wonders of the television, I read. For fun! Right now, I’m in the middle of Small Island by Hilary Mantel, about Jamaicans moving to the UK after WWII. Next on the shelf is a non-fiction book (le gasp!) called The Juggler’s Children by Carolyn Abraham, about her adventures in genealogical research and DNA testing. My dad sent it to me because he heard an interview with Abraham on CBC’s The Sunday Edition, which had also piqued my interest.

3. Experiment!

Sure, that can mean sex swings if you want it to, but it can also just mean trying something new — a new restaurant, recipe, outfit, neighbourhood, exercise class. I don’t have to only eat omelettes, salads and pasta anymore! There is time to concoct culinary delicacies, and so I’ve made scallops (yes, I had to call my mum to ask how, but still), and Baboushka and I made dairy-and-gluten free chocolate cake and a clementine cake, and I have grand plans to try cooking swordfish in the near future.

But for now, Dr. McDreamy awaits. (He is, by the way, another succulent piece of manflesh. But I think we all knew that. Still, a photo for fun!)