For those of you who don’t want to hear the sch- word during the summer, I’m giving you five seconds to stop read­ing this article. Five, four, three, two…two and a half… (If you haven’t walked away yet, I give you my full respect.) …One. Okay: school. There. I said it. And the word isn’t actually exploding or anything; I’m a bit shocked. I thought it was a sin to even think about that word during the summer, the type that makes God fling lightning bolts… Okay, just kidding, but I suppose there’s nothing I can really do to avoid thinking about it.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that I am in­deed home this whole summer, doing jobs and classes, instead of being in a sleepaway camp. Maybe it has to do with the fact that my fami­ly recently bought this giant blue book for 30 bucks that has three giant letters dominating its cover: SAT. (I looked it up—funnily enough, while SAT used to stand for Scholastic Aptitude Test, it now doesn’t really stand for anything. But I like to think it really means Sorry-you-must-take A-really-long-and-irritating-but-im­portant Test.) Or maybe it’s just because my mind is the type of mind that’s always jumping ahead, always thinking about the next step in­stead of pausing to fully enjoy this one.

So yes, I will admit it: I have been think­ing about school. I’ve been worrying over how hard junior year of high school might be, I’ve been nervous about keeping up with the workload, I’ve been stressing over getting ready for the SAT and SAT II and BST and TSET and KMET. (I made up the last three, but who knows? Maybe I gave the Col­lege Board some ideas.) I’ve been think­ing about what clubs I might join or even start. And of course I’ve been looking for­ward to seeing my friends again after say­ing farewell to them for the summer.

In fact, once I mentioned something on Facebook about missing the grade but not school, and another person com­mented something along these lines: “So Oren, you’d be happy if our whole grade went to Hawaii and met up together, right?” My response: “Sure, if you pay for my plane ticket!” Someone else: “Or we could all swim.”

It’s not as if I’m really fearful or hateful to­wards school. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I do enjoy challenging myself in school, and talking to all of the people I meet there, and trying my hardest on all my assignments. It’s never easy, and sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming, but overall it’s been positive for me. It’s just that… it’s summer! Why do I need to think about it just yet? Why can’t I get it out of my mind?

I could say that it’s good to think about the future and plan ahead and all that. And that’s certainly true. However, right now I’d like to take a different tack. What if I just take some time and…stop thinking about it? What if I focus in on the present? Instead of thinking ahead, perhaps I can just look ahead. I mean that literally—look outside, at the idyllic, tree-lined street in front of my house, which is splat­tered with sunlight in the late afternoon. I can look at the massive skyscrapers that seem to be rising before my eyes as I enter Manhattan each morning for my internships. I can feast in the view of the calm, rippling waves and the sparkling golden sand when my family goes to the beach.

In fact, this reminds me of one of my fa­vorite hobbies: photography—an art that isn’t just about capturing the moment, but finding it with your eyes. It’s encouraged me to keep an eye out for the unusual, for the pristine, the chaotic…anything interesting that could make a great shot. But it doesn’t require as much thought as it does looking, as it does fo­cus on the outside world. I took a photography class earlier in the summer at the Met, and the main focus was Garry Winogrand, a photogra­pher who got up close and personal with his subjects…without thinking about it too much, without bothering to ask them or getting to know them. I don’t know if I want to follow his lead of getting really close to strangers (so far I haven’t earned any restraining orders, and I plan on keeping it that way), but the idea of keeping your eyes open, and taking shots—or at least just taking in views, enjoying the sights you see—is something I can certainly follow his lead in doing, whether I’m behind the lens or not.

So that’s the antidote, I surmise, to when thinking is becoming too much. (I tried to use an SAT-caliber word in order to make that sen­tence more interesting; do I get extra points?) To stop thinking for a minute and to just look, to enjoy what you see in front of you, wheth­er it’s the backyard or the ocean or the office building down the road. I know I won’t really be able to take school off my mind for good— especially since I still need to do more SAT prep this summer, and eventually I’ll be walking with my mom through the aisles at ShopRite hum­ming along to their back-to-school jingles. But maybe I can give my mind a rest from it for just a little bit longer?

Oren Oppenheim, age 16, lives in Fair Lawn, New Jer­sey and attends Ramaz Upper School in Manhattan. He spends his free time writing and reading, and hopes to become a published novelist. You can email him at [email protected].

By Oren Oppenheim