A relatively new resident of the state earlier this week shook his head and muttered, “Summer in Maine … it fills up so fast.”

Meanwhile, brand new — as of Saturday — Bowdoin College graduate Teona Williams will bid adieu to the Brunswick campus and set out on a global quest to “study how other cultures view the world around them with an emphasis on studying whether Western attitudes about outdoor recreation have transferred to countries that have experienced colonialism,” according to a report in the Bangor Daily News.

As Memorial Day weekend heralds the arrival of summer — marked not by a solstice but by the annual influx of those “love their money, not so sure about their attitudes” summer folk — the juxtaposition of those two scenarios should spur those of us who live here to contemplate our approach to another season made glorious, in part, by its inherently fleeting nature.

Maine’s comparatively short summers offer a bounty of opportunities. The knowledge that daylight starts shortening in less than a month and frost warnings will return in late August tempts us to gorge on the feast that Maine lays out for summer.

Seaside beaches with, for the first time in months, waters that don’t instantly freeze our toes and winds that don’t burn our cheeks open to us. Mountains, free of snow for a few weeks out of the year, summon us to their summits.

Ball games, barbecues, bluegrass on the grass and brass from the gazebo compete for our twilight attention.

Festivals and fairs fill Maine summer weekends with midways, music and fireworks. Is it true that fried dough isn’t fattening between Memorial Day and Labor Day?

Summer in Maine is a blessing, but it’s one we ought not take for granted. As the season starts, it behooves Mainers to approach it with appreciation and serenity, rather than break-neck abandon. We should not imbibe so ravenously that we can’t relish each seasonal serving on its own merits.

We must guard against becoming either jaded, complacent or culturally inoculated against the splendors around us, like Williams’ host mother in Kenya who dampened the young woman’s enthusiasm about a first snorkeling experience by asking, “Why would you do that? Why would you want to look at fish or something?”

Instead, Mainers should embrace the example set by Williams, a Washington, D.C., native who grew to admire Maine’s natural gifts over time after an initial Bowdoin College camping adventure that led her to remark, “Why do people do this? This just isn’t fun for me. I don’t see why this is fun for anybody.’”

People from metropolitan areas inch their way north through snarled traffic to spend a week or two in a place that we Mainers wake up to every morning. With the fresh perspective of someone like Williams, we should start the season with a commitment to fully appreciate the gift of summer in Maine.

Rather than being annoyed by the tourists, the bugs and the humidity, let’s bask in the beauty, frolic with fireflies and savor summer in a way that respects Maine’s manifold gifts and leaves no question about “Why would you do that?”

letters@timesrecord.com