Summertime traditions and vacations

With the 2023-24 school year coming to an end, students and faculty alike are looking forward to enjoying summer’s heat, blue skies, and freedom from school-related obligations. Free time may entail relaxing and focusing on hobbies, and several people partake in yearly traditions that make summer a more special time for them.

For some, summer means a reunion with meaningful vacation spots. Every year, Aaliya Panyadahundi ’28 and her family “drive eight hours to Virginia Beach” where they swim and surf in “water [so] murky you can only see like two inches down before it goes pitch black.” When her family craves a sweet treat, they “bike to Ben and Jerry’s” or “get ice cream from [an] ice cream truck — we know what time it comes so we just wait for it.” For Panyadahundi, summertime visits to Virginia are “meaningful because we’ve been doing that since I was very young and it’s the only thing we do yearly.” Kelsey Reichart ’27 also likes to “swim and go boogie boarding” when she and her family “visit my grandfather in Rhode Island.” For his part, math teacher Jeff Leng compares his summer trips to Singapore and London to having “sentimental feelings when you hear the same music [from a certain] period of life.”

 Despite the busy lives of the Hopkins community, summer allows families and friends to spend time together that they may not have during the school year. Claire Roberts ’24 says her “favorite tradition” provides “a way to get everyone together.” She explains, “My extended family does a murder mystery dinner party every summer… we all dress up and pick a character, and we’ll plan a whole meal.” Before teaching at Hopkins Summer School, history teacher and Head Advisor of the Class of  2029 Ian Guthrie joins his brother in “a very old farm in a super rural part of Virginia” where “his dog and my dog just run around all day.” According to Guthrie, “It’s basically doing nothing, but it’s super relaxing after a Hopkins school year.” Guthrie adds that “It’s maybe the two weeks of the year I get to see my brother.” For her part, Emma Yan ’24, who is so busy that she doesn’t “have enough time” for her family and friends throughout the school year, makes it a tradition to “have a movie marathon of films we have missed during the year” with them.

Though summer is often social, it also leaves personal time to explore interests. Brock Bowen ’27 and Leilani Edusa ’27 are “going to a fencing camp with Olympic fencers… in Massachusetts.” Yan will spend her time “playing piano and guitar and scrolling on [Instagram] Reels.” When Aurora Chevalier ’26 isn’t working at or attending summer camps, she makes sure to devote “a few hours to watching television, because I don’t have work, but I also use Duolingo to stay ahead in French.”

Many members of the Hopkins community associate summer with positive memories that stay with them for years to come. Anvi Pathak ’26 reflects on a moment years ago when “my sister married a horseshoe crab” and, according to Panyadahundi, “she cheated on him with a conch.” As with many in the Hopkins community, Pathak is “excited for what this summer has to offer.”