It’s Labor Day weekend - the unofficial end of the summer for PTown.

And you can see it everywhere. Everyone is walking the streets in sweatshirts and shorts, you can overhear people talking about “back to school” as you pass, and so many of the townies will tell you how “over it” they are.

Granted, it is a little overcast, cold, and windy but that alone doesn’t explain the feeling in town and the funk that so many townies are in right now.

This season has been terrible for almost everyone working here. The weather has been great at times, but overall it’s been crapy for most of the season. Started with massive rain, went into massive mosquitos, had a break of sun and heat, and then straight to windy and cold.

Tourism was down dramatically. Guesthouses had rooms available during weeks usually booked weeks in advance. Typically busy restaurants had no wait times. The staff that assume and rely on tips coming in had a new equation to work with: Less people = Less tips = more hours or 2nd + 3rd jobs.

The crowd has changed from many and mostly young to few and mostly old. Granted, those coming have been mostly wealthy. I had my first American Express Black experience the other day. But as reversed logic would have it, the wealthy actually tip less than the good ol’ middle class. Well, in most of my experiences anyway.

And here’s the thing about this summer in this town - when people who come here to work for the summer are told they can walk away with a few grand in their pockets if they work hard but then end up working their asses off just to cover their seasonal rent, the season becomes a wash for them.

When someone is making $50 a day and it costs just about that to eat and have a drink or two many people stop caring and just half-ass their job so they can go blow what little money they made. It’s a vicious cycle because those people who do come into town get crappy service, then tip crapily, which in turn means crappy service for the next round of people.

I can relate - I just finished paying my rent a month ago and have saved WAAAY less than a grand. I am upset about that. But in the end it’s just a drop in the bucket. This is one summer in my life and whatever bills I have at the end of it will be paid off eventually. Just because I’m not making what I thought I would (I really didn’t know what to expect anyway) I’m not going to take it out on anyone. It was a shitty summer money-wise, but chock full of life experiences for me.

What I didn’t earn in cash this summer, I’ve earned in life lessons. I learned a lot about people - good and bad people. I learned a lot about relationships - those that are worth trying to save and those that are not. I learned a lot about work ethic - a good one will always win out in the end.

I’m walking away from this summer with someone who, over the weeks and months we have been together, through lots of ups and downs, I have grown to appreciate and love. I’m walking away from this summer with so many new friends and connections all over the country. I’m walking away from this summer with a renewed desire to fulfill the many more dreams and goals I have yet to accomplish in my life.

It’s been a good summer for me. I’ve grown, accomplished the goals I set out to, and feel changed for the better because of it.

I still have a few more weeks left in town until I’m off on my next adventure. I’ll talk more about that as I figure it out. For now I’m going to try my hardest to enjoy every last minute of Provincetown.