The first time I heard the word “adulting” not so long ago, I immediately harkened back to my pre-teen years and assumed the definition of the term was simply behaving like a grown-up. And if that was indeed the meaning of the latest, vaguely annoying, quasi-millennial recasting of long-held, perfectly fine words, then, yes, I definitely associated adulting activities as things we do in the fall. My (and Beyoncé’s) September 4 birthday always seemed to land on Labor Day weekend, the understood end of our endless summer. My summers growing up were filled with scant responsibilities, save playing competitive tennis…

Photography by Quentin Bacon When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night, I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn…