It may only be June, but to me, it already feels like the summer has passed us by.

I haven’t done anything I’ve wanted to yet, the weather has been overwhelmingly miserable and the rising cost of living means no one can afford to make any plans. It doesn’t help that everybody I know seems to be having some iteration of a quarter-life crisis and three long-term couples in my life have suddenly broken up. And I’m not alone. A quick straw poll of the Stylist office revealed that many of my colleagues feel exactly the same, grappling with the disappointment of a ‘nothing’ summer while not being able to do anything to change things. Collectively, we’re chasing a feeling of joy and lightness that only seems to be getting further away: “How To Have That Summer” is a tag that has more than 30 million views on TikTok alone.

Is it getting harder to have fun? Here’s why so many of us are in the summer of overthinking