Hate to be a downer here, but I do not like summers. Or at least I haven’t liked them since I transitioned from PR professional to PR professor to “retired…” It hasn’t been easy…not that I’ve actually spent much time, really, in the process…to transition from a go-go-go work week/month to three months of basically sitting around twiddling my thumbs.

Now before any of my friends in academia start pounding on my head about “doing research, preparing for the coming semester, etc., etc.,” yeah, I know you do that stuff. And good for you. It’s just that I’m not wired for that kind of activity. I stay up-to-date on all things PR anyway through my professional associations and activities. And syllabi are syllabi.

I miss the good ol’ days when I was on call 24/7…wore a pager so that folks could get in touch with me wherever I was…and loved the adrenaline rush when it went off. It might be someone from the media looking for information. Or someone from my organization with a PR-related problem. Whatever the case, it very likely meant that my expertise as a public relations professional was needed.

Having now said all this, I now have to circle back and say this particular summer has been a humdinger:

• Spent a blissful month in Taipei eating amazing food, sightseeing, hanging out…and, no, I’m not going to stop reminding you of this!
• Had (as of today) nine “Letters to the Editor” published in the Tampa Bay Times and the Taipei Times since spring semester ended, mostly addressing either ethical or transportation issues that caught my eye in the news.
• Completed and submitted a review of a pretty cool new public relations ethics textbook for “Communication Booknotes Quarterly.” (Publication pending.) 
• Had a blog post published by PRSA on mentoring. Love being able to share my thoughts with my professional colleagues.
• Started coordinating activities for PRSA’s “Ethics Month” in September…MUCH more to come on this one!!

So, yeah, contrary to my whining above, I’ve been kinda busy it seems given it’s just the end of July!

What’s the point, you ask? Pretty simple. Sometimes you just have to take a really deep breath and pause to reflect on the who/what/why of your current situation. It’s pretty easy to start beating yourself up because things at the moment just don’t seem to be rolling along the way you’d hoped. But take a minute. Do what I just did. Write down all the stuff you’ve accomplished in the past XX months (or weeks or whatever). Then take a good long look at the list.

My guess is that, when you’ve done this, you’re going to say “Holy Cow! I’ve done some pretty cool stuff!”

Yeah. Summers may not be one of my favorite times of the year. But that’s okay. They’re just one small part of a 12-month flurry of activity. Just keep on keepin’ on, and you’ll realize it’s not “just another day.”