As a child, I remember having a love/hate relationship with summer. I looked forward to longer days of play and relaxation, but I loathed bugs. I didn't have as much time with my friends because both of my parents worked, and they didn't have much free time to cart my brother and I around. I think that my brother and I, as twins, were expected to create fun for ourselves. I'm not making my parents out to be monsters because let's face it, I survived 22 years because of them. However, I remember thinking that summer meant more time for all of the weird things I liked to do.

I would snap peas with my grandmother in these huge silver bowls as we sat in front of her small TV watching daytime soap operas. We would drink sweet tea and eat spaghetti for lunch, and then we would run errands around town like it was our job. My family owned a few businesses around town, so we would check on things. I felt so important. People knew me wherever I went. I would get to check people out at the gas station that we owned, and I would be on cloud 9 until someone wanted to buy beer or cigarettes. They'd move me off the register because I was 11 and then I would clean the counters.

My brother and I would play Halo in the back bedroom of my grandmother's house, and he would tell me how awful I was while insisting that he could teach me to be better. We would swim in a pool that our aunt gave us and we would fight over the channel at dinnertime. When we had a birthday party or a day with friends, we would beg to be taxied around by whomever was willing. Our older sister got stuck with the brunt of that until college swept her away.

It's funny thinking back on summer. I used to think that it was just understood that summer meant all of these things. I thought summer would always mean freedom. That every summer I was just going to be able to snap peas in that kitchen, and that my brother and I would always be fighting over the remote. Then, adulthood went ahead and put me in my place. My grandmother's not here in the house that she left to my siblings and me. My brother's not here to fight with because he's found his own home in Oxford.

I don't spend my days running errands and feeling like I'm on top of the world. Instead, I'm working two jobs, and taking summer courses to push up my graduation date. I spent all of those summers trying to age myself, so that I could be an adult sooner. Now, I'd give anything to be able to go back, and live one of those summers over again.

I figured that summers in my 20s would be so much different. I'd have time to go everywhere, and I'd have best friends to go cool places with. Maybe I thought that work was just kind of something that you stumbled upon. College would just kind of work itself out, and I would sit back with a mai tai and a good book. Then, I'd start the real world, and I would find out that it didn't suck as much as everyone always said.

Basically, I thought that real world was just the underdog that no one ever gave enough credit.

The real world is scary and I'm just talking about the daily amount of scary that comes with bills, work and responsibilities. Then, you add the terrifying events that have already happened this summer worldwide. Jeez. It's enough for me to start dredging up my plans for a time machine. The innocence that our world has had ripped from us over the past rwo months is jarring to say the least.

So, I guess the point of this rambling is to plead for acceptance and kindness once again. I know that I keep writing words of solidarity for those with anxiety. But, it's bigger than that. You don't have to have anxiety to be going through a rough period in your life. You don't have to have depression. You can be smiling while you're reading this, thinking that none of this applies to you.

What I want you to remember as you go through your daily routines is that you were once a child. You had these ideals that were instilled in you or that you built yourself. The world was this open playground for you and all of your comrades. Why does that have to change now that we're adults? Why can't we keep our freedom when we gain responsibility?

Everyday, I see negativity being exposed for no reason. I see it when I look in the mirror too, so don't think that I'm trying to put myself above it all. However, I want our generation, the ones that are coming into the workforce, to take charge of what we can. Claim responsibility for your own actions, and spread kindness where you can. I know it's hard. Some days, I can't help but to find negativity behind each door that I open.

But, we have the power. We can control our actions. We can choose to fight injustice with justice. I can't help but to think that I must sound like a hippy from the 60's putting a flower inside a police officer's gun, but I kind of think that those guys were heroes. Positivity can go a long way, and it's crazy to think that being nice could change the world. I believe it could though because I've seen it change an entire day.

So, if you've made it to the end of this article turned journal entry, I hope you'll take my rambling words to heart. If you're a college student, try to go out of your way for someone other than yourself. If you're an employee, tell a coworker something nice. If you're a parent, give your children a memory that they can carry into their twenties or thirties.

Most of all, if you're a human being, help me bring a little humanity back to our world with kindness.