You may, or may not, have heard the term “18 Summers”. I never knew what it meant until I heard it this year. And it didn’t resonate with me until I became a mother.
My husband and I were on a trip to Branson, MO at the Stormy Point Village Resort with our girls enjoying our first vacation week of summer 2024. It was Monday morning on our second day there, and I was sitting at a desk in the corner of our master suite working on a BMW Championship project that was due that day for my job. Vacation or not, it didn’t matter. It had to get done.
After working for about an hour, I was just about to finish everything up when an email came across my inbox from Mike Higgins, Executive Director of the New England PGA. It was his weekly email series entitled, “Mike’s Motivation Mondays.” I paused to read it, just like I do every Monday. But, this time it was like it was written just for me.
I had tears in my eyes by the time I was done reading that email.
His message couldn’t have come at a better time. I closed my laptop and didn’t touch it again for the rest of the week.
I’m going to share his message with you too, because I think it’s important for everyone to read. This is how I learned what “18 Summers” meant.
Mike originally wrote this message in July of 2021, and just three short years later he’s now sharing it again, but as a father about to embark on his 18th summer with his daughter who just graduated high school. Remember this as you read his words. It goes by so fast.
Mike’s Motivation Mondays
’18 Summers’
by Mike Higgins | Executive Director, New England PGA
“In July of 2021 I wrote this article. Last week my daughter Cora graduated from Shrewsbury High School and thus begins our 18th summer together.
Going through pictures and recalling summer memories I can not help but get emotional thinking where has all the time gone.
I thought that it was only fitting that this week I would rerun my article, and hopefully it serves as a reminder for those who read it back in 2021, and some advice for those reading it for the first time. I’m not crying, you are!”
“At the age of 14 my high school golf coach came to me and asked, “the golf pro at our home course is looking for some help in the bag room. Do you have any interest?” I couldn’t say yes fast enough!
That next Saturday I showed up at Mt. Pleasant CC (now The Haven), met my new boss Art Harris, PGA, and that is where I would spend the next six summers.
In the summer of 1996, while working at Mt. Pleasant, I also started an internship with the New England PGA, and by the Spring of 1997 I was hired on full time by the NEPGA. My summers were right where I wanted them to be….around the game of golf!
The only problem with being around the game of golf during the summer, is that it is a bit of a challenge to get away from it.
Since 1991, I have never had a “real” summer vacation. I certainly have taken days off here and there, maybe even thrown a few days together, but as many of you in the golf business can relate, it is hard to unplug.
The northeast golf season is short and extremely busy, so it is a challenge to completely leave for a week.
My “summer vacations” with my family usually consist of us taking two vehicles and me popping in and out for a couple days, having my laptop set up somewhere in the corner, and working the phones throughout the day.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting a friend of mine and on his refrigerator, I noticed he had a magnet that said 18 summers.
– Mike higgins
I asked him if that was a resort, or a craft beer I had not heard of yet, and he laughed and said:
“Nope, that is how many summers you get with your kids before they are gone.”
That magnet hit me in the head and in the heart harder than any hammer could.
Those of us who have children can attest to how fast they grow up, and in my mind, I was quickly brought from 2006 and back to 2021 realizing my daughter Cora just turned 15. I am in the middle of my 15th of 18 summers with her and we have never gone away for a “true” summer vacation.
We have done some traveling in the winter to Florida around the PGA Show, or maybe a February or April vacation, but never in the summer. Have I deprived my children of summer memories?
I only have three and a half summers left before my daughter heads off to college and I have decided that we as a family, and me as a father, are going to work harder at creating more summer memories.
This August, when my family goes to Maine for a week, we are only going to take one car, and for the next three upcoming summers I have promised my family that we are going to go away.
I have always wanted to go to Yellowstone, see the Grand Canyon, drive the California coast and travel through Europe.
I am not sure if any of those will be able to happen in 2022 – 2024, but I am going to try my best to create summer vacation memories over the next three summers if it’s the last thing I do!
Those of you reading this who have already had 18 summers with your children can probably attest to the challenges of getting away during the golf season as a PGA Professional or someone who works in golf.
Those of you who have young ones at home, or who have yet to start a family, I suggest you make summer vacations a priority.
Create your own magnet that says 18 summers and place it front and center on your refrigerator.
Make sure that you make the time to create those summer memories, because fifteen years have flown by and I find myself wondering where all the time has gone.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“In the end, kids won’t remember that fancy toy you bought them, they will remember the time you spent with them.“
– Kevin Heath
Click here to view all of Mike’s Motivation Monday messages on the New England PGA website.
We’ve created our own “18 Summers” magnet, click the image below to get yours.
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This alone makes you realize just how fast time goes. And how incredibly important it is to be present in every moment you have with your family.
Because the truth is, we don’t even know if we will have 18 summers. In a perfect world that’s what we get.
So, take the trip, book the flight, go to the park for the twentieth time or the splash pad and leave your work and worries behind! Work will be there when you get back, and it can certainly wait.
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