5 things that have helped me make peace with summer

What’s your favorite season? And why is summer your least favorite? Is it the sunburns, mosquitoes, or getting back into a hot car? For me, summer has always been a tad rough, but starting last year, something changed, and that thing was: I decided to be a mermaid.

To backtrack, the women in my family have had a long-standing rule that we don’t dunk our hair when we go swimming. I don’t know where this rule started, but it meshes just fine with adult life, where, if you’re lucky enough to be in a pool, it’s pretty normal to stand around drinking in it. But then I got a pool at my very own house and suddenly standing in the pool was no longer sufficient.

I needed to be doing handstands in the pool. Doing laps (?!?) in the pool, after years of complaining about swim team as a child. Several things made pool time, and thus summer, more bearable. So here they are!

A rash guard/ UPF t-shirt

Is a long-sleeve tee at the pool cool? No, it is not. But what if being cool was not the objective when going to the pool? I picked up a UPF tee last year and my pool time changed dramatically. I could suddenly be outside a whole lot longer, plus, the feeling of spray sunblock is annoying. Now it’s a must.

A fuss-free swimsuit

Last year I picked up a one-piece swimsuit from Aerie (they make long torsos!!) and this year I tried one from Andie (also long torso). Both have made actually swimming a lot easier, and, thankfully, one-piece swimsuits have come a long way in cuteness.

Goggles and earplugs

If you’re actually going to swim some laps, I cannot recommend goggles and swim earplugs highly enough. Both make the process much more pleasant!

A rechargeable mosquito repellant

The theme of this post is avoiding sprays. This little machine has made a huge difference in the number of bug bites I’m getting!