The Columnist Manifesto

No, it's not a typo. It's a description of what August feels like to an academic. My friend and colleague, WarrenPK said that August feels like Sunday evening -- the waning moments of free time before you have to go back to work -- because academics spend most of August with a backdrop of anxiety about getting ready for classes, meeting end-of-summer deadlines for overly ambitious summer projects, and regretting time that could have been more productively spent.

I'm not looking for sympathy here -- I realize that we academics are very privileged to have the summer, not off, exactly, but largely free from have-to-be-at-the-office responsibilities. I'm just reporting.

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