Now that the summer is coming to a close, it feels good to take a look back on this long, yet fulfilling summer and point out the things that made this summer better than last!

1. Summer Food

Everyone loves the feeling of cold, sweet watermelon juice dripping down the side of their mouth. There are also the usual suspects for great summer foods, such as oranges, tomatoes, blueberries, cantaloupe and honeydew. And who can forget snow cones and slurpees? However, this summer was definitely filled with a lot more interesting foods. At a number of carnival festivals all around the nation, fried foods were spotlighted. Fried sticks of butter, fried oreos, and fried chicken were just some of these interesting foods. Internationally, Rio de Janeiro was the center of attention due to the Olympics held there. Some Brazilian summer foods that made a large impression include barbaqued meat, moqueca (a Brazilian fish stew), cachaça (fermented sugarcane juice), and brigadeiros (chocolate truffle). There was definitely an international mix of flavors for everyone to try this summer.

2. Summer Music

This summer was filled with great tunes from Justin Bieber's new song to Drake and Rihanna's duet. Sure, some summers are filled with songs that really involve summer, like Lana Del Ray's Summertime Sadness, but this summer was filled with good beats and bouncy tunes regardless. The summer started with Justin Timberlake's Can't Stop the Feeling which featured regular people dancing out to his pop song. Sprinkled throughout the summer, Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez sang a duet together called We Don't Talk Anymore, Sia made number one in the American Top 40 with her song Cheap Thrills, Justin Bieber made waves with his song Cold Water featuring Major Laser, and Rihanna and Drake each released their own singles and combined together in the song Too Good. This year's summer artists did not disappoint with their songs, definitely making this summer fun and upbeat.

3. Summer Movies

One of the big releases this summer was Suicide Squad which featured an all-star cast and kick-butt August weekend box-office debut. With Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as the now infamous Harley Quinn, teenage and adult audiences alike could not keep their eyes off the DC anti-superhero movie. Also a huge success, Matt Damon starred in another Jason Bourne movie and Emma Roberts and Dave Franco starred in Nerve. Earlier in the summer, a Secret Life of Pets and Finding Dory, featuring Ellen DeGeneres's voice, were released a largely receptive and entertained audience. Rated R film Sausage Party was released later in the summer. These films made huge debuts and caused summer movie-going to be a big-time event.

4. Summer Vacations

Summer vacations are the most important aspect of summer! Everyone finds some way to travel the world or just in the US. Many people go to the shore and as a resident of New Jersey, I personally know that my friends love to travel to Wildwood Beach and other locations on the shore. There are also the waterpark getaways like Great Wolf Lodge, the Poconos, and Six Flags (the water portion). Beach locations in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean are constant places that are visited. This summer in particular, Rio De Janeiro was a hotspot for tourism because of the Summer Olympics.

5. Summer Olympics

Lastly, but most importantly, no summer could be complete without a large serving of Simone Biles' floor routines, Michael Phelps' butterfly, and Catie Ledecky's awesome first place wins. While the Summer Olympics cannot occur every year, we know for sure that when it does occur, it will be a huge deal with lots of memorable events. With ever increasing diversity and beautiful celebrations of differences, the people of the world banned together and celebrated a wonderful Olympics. No 2016 summer could ever be complete without these events!