To our free spirits of summer,

Summer has always been our favorite time of the year; it brings us all together. It’s like a forced, overdue reunion. We spend our time with the people who truly mean the most to us. It’s a time when the essays seize and stress of school fades away, at least for a little while.

There’s a clear beginning and end to summer. The date seems to set us free in the beginning but capture us long before we’re ready at the end. We look forward to the day we are set free but the day that it all ends doesn’t cross are minds until it nearly knocks the wind out of us. But for the time in between, we live freely.

Our free spirts shine a little brighter and our leisurely ways resurface. We spend our long summer nights spontaneously driving no where and stopping along the side of the road to gaze up at the starts. We act invincible. We draw our names in the dark night air with the sparkler we’re holding in our hands. We go to concerts. We dance as if no one is watching and sing as if we’re the only ones in the crowd. We climb atop each others shoulders with our arms reaching into the night air grabbing at nothing and throwing our heads back to soak it all in. And we don’t complain, but rather laugh, when our voices escape us the next morning. We live every second we have to the fullest.

Our lives have no structure. Our lifestyles become extemporaneous and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We hang our limbs outside of our beat up old cars and ride the waves of the wind with our arms. We blare the latest Indie Rock songs and belt out the lyrics as if the songs were our own.

When summer comes to a close, as all of them do, we look back on all of the times we laughed and cried. All of the nights we spent together creating memories that would last us a lifetime. And the few people that were by our side every minute of the way. One day we’ll look back upon these nights and smile, envying our youthful selves.

So here’s to our free spirits. We see you more during the summer than any other time. We leave you there because you give us a time to look forward to. You surface more often when we’re around the people that keep us young and share our love of late nights and camp fires. The ones that laugh along side of us and sing the same songs. And it’s not that you disappear when all of this comes to an end, we still keep you around all the while attempting to learn how to be an adult. But we thank you for helping us discover who we are. Never leave our sides.

Sincerely,

The Wallflowers