The Post-Season

My yard is an un-kept mess of overgrown weeds and vegetation. My desk at home has bills, mail, and paperwork from the past four months piled high. My cupboard is nearly bare, only a few canned goods and rice constitute the majority of the stock. My car needs numerous maintenance and repair jobs from summer driving before inspection. It must be the end of the summer season. Welcome to the post-season.

As a business owner on Martha’s Vineyard, I must remain focused and make my business the priority each day of the summer season, however long it may last or linger. The consequence of remaining so focused on my business is that most every other aspect of my life is put on the back burner until I can safely say that the season has actually ended. There is no exact date, no expiration when the calls will stop or the clients will no longer wander in. I might try to plan the events for any given day, but if there is business to be done, I must heed the call.

September is a transition time for many year round residents of Martha’s Vineyard. For me, I begin working with the Cross Country Team at the high school while trying to maintain a viable practice at my business. It has proven to be a manageable feat, but trying, to say the least. Between the physical demands of training on my own as well as with the team and the time issues scheduling clients around meets and practices, it gets quite stressful. Each serves as a piece in my life that I find integral to remain part of the island community, so I continue the balancing act year after year.

As the days grow shorter and the calls in the office less frequent, I begin to chip away at all of the tasks that have been neglected during the hectic summer season; the bills and papers on my desk will slowly be filed, the yard will eventually be manicured in time for the fall, trips off island will re-stock the cupboard with Trader Joe’s goodies, and my car will finally pass inspection for another year.

When the last of the seasonal stores close on Main Street, the last of the leaves fall from the trees, and the ferry schedule shows only Vineyard Haven as being open, I can finally consider the season to have been declared “over” for this calendar year. Many stores will close not only for the season, but the space will become available for the next starry-eyed dreamer to open the store they always dreamed of. Then they too can join the ranks of business owners that spend endless days trying to keep not only their professional dreams alive, but also their threads of sanity intact until the end of the season. Only then will they be able to take a deep breath and determine if it is all worth they effort.

In my many years of owning and operating a business, it has only been the last two or three seasons that have really given me reason to pause and consider what else I could possibly do on this island to be able to afford living here. I see all of the unemployed residents “toughing it out” during the off season and think to myself, “I really am quite fortunate to be financially successful at what I do.” After all of the griping, complaining, and general frustration caused by the chaos during the season, it is only in the post season that I remember that I do it all for the reward of being able to live here year round, as a part of this community, on this little island of Martha’s Vineyard.