The 2024 summer was deemed Brat Summer. This means it was a summer of party girls, club classics, and being authentically yourself. The idea of being called a brat was turned on its head, and went from an insult to a compliment in the course of months. Feuds were squashed, dances were made, but were Brat summers really achieved?
For me, a barista in the summer months who had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. in the morning, I found Brat Summer wasn’t always on my mind. The closest I got to the iconic Brat green synonymous with the summer was creating my daily matcha drinks and listening to “Apple” on the loudspeakers at work. As much as I’d love to complain about this lack of Brat Summer, I can’t find it in myself to be too overly pitiful. I learned quite a lot at that coffee shop — I can take on mean girls at the till when they want to be rude to food service workers; I might say something stupid every once in a while when trying to serve coffee, but that didn’t make me any less of a good person; and I learned that all those mistakes I thought I would think about all the time I can hardly remember anymore. This summer was for learning, challenging myself, and finding out in the end I was stronger than I ever knew, and I think in a way that was very Brat Summer of me.
This last summer I may have had more of a Dolly Parton Working Girl Summer, but that thankfully means now I can have a Brat Fall and I would much rather have that then a Sad Contemplative Noah Kahan Fall — even though I love you Noah Kahan.
