How summer can transform us

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/jun/08/how-summer-transforms-us-lauren-laverne

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Summer makes butterflies of us all – that's why we like it. The most seductive aspect of the season is the entirely illogical but persistent suspicion that we may emerge from it transformed. This idea is so deep-seated in our culture that it's hard to tell if we believe it because we read about it, or if people write about it because they believe it.

Summer is the traditional setting for coming-of-age stories, whether they are told in the pages of a novel, by actors on film or in the lyrics of a pop song. The Go-Between, Romeo + Juliet, Stand By Me, Atonement, "Summer of '69"… this is the season where all things – including us – reach a maturity that is fleetingly, poignantly, perfect.

Our schooldays teach us that summer is the time to ring the changes. Most of us remember a time when it really was possible to return to our classmates a different person after six whole weeks, even if we never did it. Summer then was unfathomably vast and full of blank mystery. Imagining yourself beyond its horizon was impossible: the terrain and the person upon it each seemed as strange as the other. These days we know better, but perhaps only just. The season is dotted with public and private celebrations. A string of invitations to dress up and try being someone else for a while, whether you're attending a festival, going on holiday or to a wedding.

The endlessness of childhood summers is illusory, of course. Should we feel sad about the brevity of the season? John Steinbeck asked: "What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?" It's a philosophical conundrum that may provide a moment of zen for British expats on their sun loungers while also going some way to explain the stereotypically dyspeptic portrayal of Brits who reside in perpetual summer.

Perhaps you can have too much of a good thing, and maybe the best bits of summer are sweetest in small doses. Heat, daydreaming and indolence are only alluring if they're out of the ordinary (which I'm sure they are for most – I for one have probably heard the Kinks singing about lazing on a sunny afternoon more often than I've actually done it).

Like at Christmas, the rational part of ourselves knows what summer is really like, but it works its magic on us because we want it to. And because it really does seem magical: summer days are elastic. Longer, lighter, warmer… Their commodious nature invites us to stuff them with as much as possible of everything that makes life worth living – love, sex, music, conversation, the outdoors…

Anticipating summer is almost as delicious as it actually happening and lasts much longer (from approximately September to May). With that in mind, may I wish you a summer – real or imagined – of fecund rose bushes, sunscreen-scented T-shirts, tall cool drinks, sand-free sandwiches and lazy, leaf-gazing afternoons.

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LaurenLaverne