For 18 years of my life, I lived in a brown house buried deep in the country. I spent the autumns raking leaves into an endless vibrant pile, winters admiring the snow drifts glistening from atop the bluffs and springs witnessing the bare trees transform into a lively forest. When I moved to the city, while I missed home, these seasons were equally as entertaining when surrounded by magnificent skyscrapers and the rhythm of the unwavering noise. That being said, when summer rolls around, I find myself reminiscing about the days when I woke up to dew glittering on the open fields and went to bed with the stars illuminating the heavens. Here are nine things that make summer in the country unparalleled.
1. Bonfires and best friends
As the nights get longer, the fires get progressively larger. You gather with your best friends around a makeshift fire pit, sitting on one of the logs enclosing the circle. Stories are swapped, remembered and made until you have all lost track of time. The ambers begin to fade, and the number of people shrinks. You embrace the smell of burning wood that lingers on your clothes as you drive home in an attempt to prolong the night just a little longer.
2. Tanning in the nude
Tan lines were never much of a worry when I lived in the country because no neighbors meant no clothes. Such activities are slightly frowned upon within the city limits…
3. Backroad ridin’
Backroads are where speed limits don’t exist, the windows are glued down and your hair dances to the sound of the wind. Whether it is cliché or not, driving with your hand gliding outside your window and the music blaring is the purest form of happiness.
4. Random creek adventures
And don’t forget to bring your swimsuit with you when you go driving because you’ll never know when you will find the perfect creek hidden in a lost valley.
5. Running in the outdoors
While you can find great running trails in the cities, in the country you can run for seemingly hours (if your lungs permit) engulfed by open fields of daisies, canopied by weeping willows and racing the cows in the divided pasture.
6. #Fresh
Fresh-cut grass? Yes, please. (Only if I didn’t have to spend hours cutting it myself…) Nothing compares to the aroma of wildflowers, pine trees and honeysuckles that escapes the forest, effortlessly carried by the soothing breeze.
7. Getting lost hiking
The best days are spent getting lost exploring the depths of the forest out your back door. As a child, I would have to tell my parents what direction I was headed into the woods because I would be gone for hours blazing my own trails.
8. Tubing down the river
No matter how many times you float down the river, you will never learn to check the tubes for air before you begin. So it was always guaranteed that after the two-and-a-half-hour ride, at least one person was hitchhiking on another friend’s floatation device.
9. Saturday night social gatherings
After working a nine-hour shift at the local marina or spending the day basking on the pontoon, the weekend nights were spent up on the ridge in your friend’s basement with your cooler of Busch Lattes and a competitive game of beer pong. These were the nights that you formed friendships that never would fade.