So Long Sweet Summer

Well here it is. One week left before I go back to school. The finale. The last summer. I‘ve loved the song “So Long Sweet Summer” for a while, and I probably listen to it in increasing amounts each August, but this year feels different. This is not the end of summer break as much as it‘s the end of a season of my life. It really just hit me that this is the last summer break. Next year, the summer season will still come, yet everything will be different. I’ll be in school/clinicals all summer. Emily will be planning a wedding and getting married. Christine will be in NYC. This is it. This is the last summer of us. I know that from here on out, things won’t be the same. Things will change and there will be a new normal. I know it’s not a big deal, and summer is really only just a season. But I can’t help but feel like this is another chapter of my childhood closing. Every year since kindergarten, I can remember looking forward to summer break- a time to hang out with friends and do absolutely nothing and everything all at the same time. Now those friends are getting married or becoming doctors or moving to New York City. And I’m so excited to see where life takes all of us. And I have no doubt that we will stay friends forever. It just seems so strange to think of this next week as the finale of all summers. George Martin said “Summer will end soon enough, and childhood as well”. So here’s to the summers full of sleepovers, swimming, going out, staying in, endless movies watched, laughter, tears, coffee, ice cream, vacations, adventures, photos, memories, and so much more. So long sweet summer. I can’t wait to see what the next season of life has to offer.

Summers past and present.

Stuck in Reverse

I am the most sentimental person I know. I also have one of the most ridiculous memories out of everyone I know. These two traits combined can be very interesting. For instance, I can hear a song that I heard 10 years ago while driving down the road with my mom, and I can still tell you exactly what road and intersection we were at when I heard the song 10 years before. This leads me to say “Aww! Remember that time…” after almost every song while my friends roll their eyes and assure me that normal people don’t remember those sorts of things (Sorry to all my friends who have to hear this constantly).  I’m not the kind of person who can take a stroll down memory lane. I take more of a camping trip down memory lane, stopping for a while and observing and taking in everything before moving on. I’m not the kind of person who should watch old home videos or look at old pictures unless I am willing to be emotional and daydream about my childhood for the rest of the day. But yesterday I did just that.
It started off simple, with me and my roommate sitting on the couch looking up YouTube videos of childhood TV shows. We watched countless videos of the various Mary-Kate and Ashley shows and sang along to the songs (embarrassing? yes. no. maybe?) I then proceeded to look up videos from the Big Comfy Couch, another one of my favorite shows from when I was younger. My roommate and I then got into a discussion about our childhoods and she said that she enjoyed her childhood but she wouldn’t want to go back. This threw me for a loop, seeing as how I would give almost anything to go back to 3^rd grade again. But then I realized and remembered that most people enjoy living their lives in a forward motion, enjoying each event as it comes and then moving on. For some reason, I tend to get stuck in the past. I never enjoy a moment as much as when it’s over, and then I look back with envy, wishing I could go back. I think that is oone of my biggest flaws. I’m 22 and I have a good life; I have no major complaints. But what I would give to go back to the time of Nintendo 64, Matilda, sleepovers, happy face pancakes, fruit roll ups, and make believe. And yes, it was fun to go back and watch some old videos of childhood shows, but I really need to be learning how to live in the present and appreciate what I have while I have it and stop living my life wishing there was a rewind button. But what can I say, I’m a work in progress. And suggestions are welcomed.

*PS- I used to and still might be obsessed with the Olsen twins and played Mary-Kate and Ashley Detective Agency when I was younger. I would always be Mary-Kate. always.

The end of one stage, the beginning of another...

I want to start this post with an apology. If I ramble or don’t make sense it is because I am exhausted and haven’t made sense all day (see previous post for proof). But I’m gonna go for it anyways:

Summer is coming to an end. In the next few weeks, one of my best friends will be moving back to school and I will be making the move to Charlotte. This summer has been weird. It’s strange moving back home after college. It was strange traveling so much. And it’s strange to be moving and starting new school. I wasn’t quite sure about how I felt about the end of summer until recently. But I have decided that I’m sad and slightly scared. It’s the end of a lot of things. After middle school, most of your friends stay in the same district and go to high school with you. After high school, things start to change. Most of your friends go off to different colleges but we all come home to the same place. Now that college is over, we are all moving on. Spreading out. Yes, there will always be Wilmington to come back to, but will this place stay “home” for all of us? The future is uncertain for a lot of us. I trust my friendships and I know that they’re strong, but it’s still scary to think that we are splitting up and moving on in different directions. The end of this summer signifies the end of childhood (yes, I’m aware that I’m 22 and ‘childhood’ probably ended a while ago, but for the sake of my point just go along with it). So am I excited to move and start nursing school? Yes, of course! But am I sad to be leaving my best friends? Am I anxious to see where we all end up? Yes. So here's to bittersweet endings and new beginnings.

Imagination

I was standing in line at TCBY today and looking at all the little children running around and I wondered to myself if it’s fun to be a kid these days? I think I can count the number of times I played on the computer or TV during my childhood on one hand. Yes, there were occasions when I would sit down with my best friends and play Mario Kart or Mario Party on the Nintendo64 (or Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega), but most of the time my friends and I were making up games and using our imaginations. Some of our favorite games when we were younger were:
-pretending we were orphans and creating an orphanage
-sitting on eggs and pretending we were birds
-playing “The Secret Garden”
-making up/choreographing dances and putting on shows
-rollerblading while pretending to be ice skating
-pretending the ground was lava
-climbing trees
-making up mysteries and solving them

Activities like these really did require so much imagination though. I remember looking at the swing set and being able to clearly picture it as a boat with red, hot, bubbling lava below. I wonder if children these days still do that? Or if the ridiculous amount of technology, iPods, computers, game boys, and other electronics create a world where children don’t have to play outside, interact with one another, or use their imagination? That makes me so sad to think about. I honestly think I had one of the best childhoods. I remember spending days on end waking up at friends houses, playing outside, and then camping out and doing it all over again the next day. I hope that children still find time to go outside and play and use their imagination. “Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.”

So to the kids who still believe that sheets and pillows can be a fort, or specs of dust might actually be fairies, keep on believing!

PS- when I was younger and we didn’t have iPods, my friends and I would push the radio to the window ledge, open the window, and turn the radio up as loud as possible so that we could skate to music in the driveway :)