Yeah, it's a little sad...

Something funny happened after I graduated college. August became a slightly depressing month.

When I was in college, I looked forward to summer jobs wrapping up, and I could feel the excitement building for fraternity recruitment, football games (yes, even at Indiana), and the general thrill of a new year beginning. I missed my friends and couldn't wait to get back to campus.

But, then you graduate, and August just means the end of summer. And, when you work in higher education as I do, it means that it's time to get back to work. Trade in the shorts for the suits. Play time is over.

During the summer, I give my staff half days on Fridays. It's a treat for surviving a very demanding school year, and it encourages my staff to get out and enjoy themselves a little bit more. Take a long weekend... catch a Friday afternoon flight and go somewhere cool. For me, it usually means a long workout, a trip to Costco, and getting my car washed.

Well, today is the final "half day Friday" of our summer, and dammit, it's depressing. Our catalogs are hitting campuses about now, and next week will be a really busy one as people begin arriving back at campuses and booking speakers.

Don't get me wrong -- I love what I do, and I'm really grateful you're booking speakers! But summer ending also means that, soon, I'll be back in that TSA security line and listening to the United Airlines safety announcement. I don't miss those things during the summer.

So, student reader, if you come back to campus a little early, and your advisor seems a tiny bit sad or moody, don't worry. We will snap out of it in a week or two. But cut us a little slack. We're in mourning.

These are the weeks when we will try to grasp a few final evenings with friends, before our evenings are entirely claimed by student organization meetings. Our weekends are about to vanish. Job stress is about to make a dramatic return to our lives. And then will come the moment in which we know that summer is truly over...

No, not Labor Day...

The first alcohol violation of the new year.

Take a deep breath everyone. Here we go.