Connor’s Corner: Fun In The Sun!
By Connor Danz, Creative Editor
Ahhh, the summer time…
The defininative favorite time of the year for any normal student that isn’t some kind of weird workaholic, three months full of beach days, camping, summer jobs, campfires with s’mores and over all a wealth of time spent having some fun in the sun and away from the boring school work.
With that being said, I have a confession to make…
While summer is my favorite season and I do partake in all of the activities listed above and more… I am quite the workaholic myself during the summer time. For the past two summers, I have enrolled in extra classes, this year two classes, in order to push myself ahead for when I actually graduate highschool. This year in particular, I took two six-week courses that have basically connected last school year and this school year together leading to me really not having much of an actual break from schoolwork itself since one class started the same day the other ended, and that one started while I was studying for finals. The benefit of this is since it was one class each, it was rather light on the workload in comparison to a normal semester, meaning I still had time to do the traditional summer activities and not be stuck at my desk all day trying to complete school work.
I got to run plenty in the morning, outdoor walks with friends, going to Amusement Parks like Six Flags, and I even got my first summer job at Huck Finn’s Playland down in the construction end of Albany.
I must say, working a summer job like that has certainly taught me a lot of on-the-ground work environment stuff that I was incredibly glad I was able to experience. I truly understand now what Aristotle was talking about when he philosophized on “useful friendships” in the Nicomachean Ethics. For those unaware, Aristotle characterizes a “useful friendship” as a relation that is born out of a common situation, in this situation, my workplace. While the strength of the friendship will vary based on location, when you are in the same environment for an extended period of time, you will come to bond over your shared struggles in this environment. I always love it when I get to see a philosophical idea on paper play out in the real world as it helps make clear that even the ancient thinkers that are often overlooked today had an arguably better grasp on themselves then we do today.
Outside of work, the only other notable thing of my summer at least was picking up a new hobby, toy photography. It is always such a stellar experience, getting to just throw yourself into a whole new world of passion, especially one that acts as a creative outlet, those are truly enriching and I plan to talk about it at length in another Connor’s Corner.
Although I am sad to see another Summer in the distance of my rear-view mirror, I can actually say I’m happy to be going back to school, making this last year count even though I have more classes at HVCC than I do in my highschool. Life just works out like that sometimes.
God Bless!