Semi-conscious summer state

You've probably not noticed, sitting in an air-conditioned, room that it's almost 50 degrees outside. That's right - it's summer! And to Bahrain's youth summer can only mean one thing - a holiday after nine whole months of all-nighters, horrifying exams and a coffee-sustained existence.

Now, life looks bright with promises of endless movie-marathons, mall-walking, sight-seeing and a balanced diet of equal proportions of popcorn and ice-cream. Life sure sounds fun.

And that's what you'd expect until we're laden down with piles of dreary homework - 'holiday homework', I believe it's called - what an oxymoron.

So the happy frisky image of partying all summer and staying up late is now tainted with the voluminous history assignments or 4,000-word research essays that are due in September.

I understand that we tend to forget a bit over the summer, but some light revision would suffice. I see no point in a planned week-by-week work-pack that gives us nothing but the opportunity to do calculus with the monkeys on some Safari in the heart of Africa.

I remember the good old days, when we used to have a stretch of three months to relax and refresh and play around as much as we wanted and come September, we'd be eagerly waiting for school to start.

In this sweltering heat, we have little inclination to sit ourselves down and put pen to paper whilst the Friends theme song plays on the television in the background.

Often the breezy wind and the enveloping heat lull us into this semi-conscious state all summer - we are effectively switched off.

So take it easy on us this summer. These are OUR three months - let us make merry while we can. We will work, when the time comes.