When I was younger I remember summer vacation felt just as long as the school year. In elementary school I remember riding my bike with a horde of other kids. We'd visit the arcade, build rickety death traps out of junk and call them bike ramps.

We climbed trees. We built forts. We put cards in our spokes and we engaged in countless acts of tomfoolery guided by highly questionable decision making skills.

At one point I spent an entire summer in a series of casts as I continued re-breaking the same arm.

As I got older my summer activities changed a lot, especially on the farm, when chores took up a fair amount of time. But even then I was joined by close friends and cousins and we made the best of the work days.

We'd often finish chores then hit the beach and in later years we'd hit parties. Still those summers seemed to last forever. They were filled with camping trips, bonfires, boat rides and atvs, paintball and video games. In those days, if we were lucky we'd get a trip to the waterpark as our summer finale.

After high school, while attending college, summers still seemed long. I've often visited home for several weeks where I'd catch up with old friends and meet up for bonfires at the Iroquois Dam, the sandholes and the gate.

As I grew older still and was working full-time, my summers still seemed like a lengthy part of my year. I'd often camp out on the island, even on work days and I'd spend as much time as I could in the water. It seemed like every weekend there was something going on.

Then I had kids and everything changed. I know they say you experience time differently as you get older due to the relativity of the percentage of your life a year makes up. But I think there is more to it than that.

Now that I have kids most of my summers seem to focus on planning out theirs and trying to keep our plans from spiraling into a Griswold family trip, though I’ve grown to empathize deeply with Clark.

 We try to clear our schedules for trips to camp, visit family, spend time on the water, enjoy summer fairs and festivals and plan out that trip to the water park.

When you're looking at summer from the perspective of weekends on the calendar, it suddenly feels a lot shorter. 

I guess I'm seeing the forest more than the trees these days.

That's not to say I don't enjoy summers. In fact we've had a pretty great one so far. We enjoyed the fireworks in Morristown and the kid's games at the Seaway Festival. We recently attended a Parkinson's Color Walk and we've been fortunate enough to find our way to a few fires and a lot of water as well. 

It's been busy and it's been fun, but man does it go by fast.

I know I often write about time. I think that's because it truly is our most limited resource as humans. I think everyone begins to realize this as they mature and that's something that probably only becomes increasingly obvious with age.

I was speaking with a friend about it recently  though and he pointed out an upside to it. 

It's that even though the weeks, months and years go by faster as we get older, the days themselves often feel quite long.

Now sometimes that's a good thing, other days not so much. But I do know that time being relative, the best way to fight against the clock is to enjoy those moments and make the most of those good times while they're happening.

As an adult it's easy to let the frustrating realities and logistics of pulling off a successful summer trip with the family get in the way of enjoying the day. These days I actively try to fight against those frustrations, take a step back and realize things are still pretty good.

I think in the end all we really have is our memories and the best way to make good ones is to slow down and enjoy the good days. So please when you’re having one of those days, don’t let it ruin you, because summers only get shorter, never longer.

Jimmy Lawton is news editor of North Country This Week.