While I didn’t expect it, this summer (my last summer before moving out to go to college) was the best summer of my life. I thought the lurking fact that all of my friends would be dispersing in different directions in a matter of weeks would constantly be hanging over my head and dampening my mood, but it seemed like the opposite. I was always excited to be with my friends and the people that I really care about because, in the back of my head, I knew that those memories were bound to be some of the thoughts that I would be left with once everything changed.
Despite how it sounds, my summer wasn’t all fun. I worked three jobs as a barista, ice cream server, and rental store desk person. I do have to admit that while these jobs aren’t the most difficult, there were definitely times that I felt stressed having to go from one job to the next in the matter of an hour or two. Tuesdays and Wednesdays were my only scheduled days off, but even then I would occasionally take up an extra shift. With my work schedule so loaded, there were definitely nights that I had to tell myself that I can sleep when I’m dead.
To start off, I traveled to Ft. Meyer’s Beach in Florida with my parents and two of my best friends. The twenty-hour drive was pretty rough, but the week on the beach was heavenly. The only real activity we took part in was renting jet skis and going miniature golfing. All we did was sit in the sand and swim in the ocean and while that might sound boring, it was the most relaxing week of my life.
Once I returned, I had sleepovers (which rarely involved much sleep), went on late night drives just to listen to music, saw the latest showings of movies at the theater, showed up at Steak and Shake around midnight for a milkshake, and blatantly stayed out until 3 a.m. knowing that I had to be up again at 5:00 to serve coffee to the local early risers. There were mornings that I almost slept through my alarm, but if I ever went back, I wouldn’t change a thing.
In addition to late night adventures, I went to more concerts in one month than I had attended throughout my whole life combined. Granted, I had only been to two before, but I went to four in the month of July alone. First I attended ScHoolboy Q in Chicago with one of my best friends. The next week, I went to an Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros concert on the Riverfront in Peoria. Warped tour was that weekend. It was my first warped experience, and while I was definitely out of my element, it was one of the best days of my life. I was with amazing people and I saw bands that I didn’t even know that I would like, not to mention that I crowd surfed for the first time (which I highly recommend). Less than a week later, I went to Lollapalooza with two of my best friends and got to see my favorite singer ever, Lana del Rey. If that wasn’t good enough, I acquired a new appreciation for The 1975 and their music now plays on my phone quite often.
To top it all off, once the rest of my friends who were moving out for school had left, only one besides me remained. Since both of our schools are on the quarter system, I had a solid two weeks before I had to move, and she almost had another month. So we did what anyone would do in the absence of their friends, we went on a road trip. Neither of us had spent much time on the East Coast, so we set our destinations for Virginia Beach, Nags Head in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. We wanted to save as much money as possible, so we reserved an inn for Nags Head and signed up for Airbnb to reserve rooms the other two locations. Fourteen hours and a couple stressful spells of driving later, we were in a stranger’s renovated barn wondering why our parents let us leave. The trip was thrilling and beautiful. My favorite part was lying on a beach in Nags Head all day and witnessing the Atlantic Ocean waves for the first time. Although the drives were long between destinations, those were some of the best memories.
All in all, I had a very busy summer. Between working and trying to take advantage of every last opportunity to spend time with my loved ones, I hardly had time to sleep. Regardless, every second was worth it and I will always remember that summer as the saddest to let go.
