Summer Thoughts

 All my life, I have been the classic summer lover.  I eagerly count the days each year until school is over, I make buckets lists to fill the long days, I stay up late with the lingering summer sun and then wish on the stars as they come out.  My skin turns a deep brown, but my hair turns impossibly light.  Summer is when I thrive, and every year it gets better and better, leaving me hoping that it will never end.

 A few months ago when I was caught in the bleakness of February winter, I assumed that this year would be no different.  Summer still seemed a long way off, and therefore had that shiny luster of things unattainable.  However, as the year neared closer and closer to its end, I realized that this year was different.  Summer meant that I had to leave my new life at school, which I had come to love so acutely.  Rather than happily counting the days until summer began, I was reluctantly counting the few days I had left of my wonderful freshman year. 

This brings me here- a little more than a week into being home.  I am slowly finding a routine for my days, but still searching for an overall direction.  I have decided that in order to make these months the most that they can be, I need to live very purposefully.  If I had put this three month break right here at this time by design, what would I use it for?  If summer had been completely my idea, rather than something purely circumstantial, what would I plan for it to be? 

Summer is just beginning, but I have a feeling that it will be gone in a blink.  I am committing to finding the joie de vivre that complements this time so perfectly, and when I do, I'll be sure to let you know.

"Then I began to notice how wonderful the breeze smelled.  It smelled like... sunshine.  Like sunshine and wild grass and pomegranates and rain!  I couldn't stop breathing it in, filling my lungs again and again with the sweetest smell I'd ever known." 

- Flipped