12 weeks. That's how long each and every one of us usually has to truly enjoy summer. 12 weeks of late nights, bad decisions, old friends, new friends, road trips, lazy days, and the beach. 12 weeks out of every year where we trade in our textbooks for bathing suits, and give ourselves over to the carefree attitude that comes with summer. The best part about summer, though, are the phases that come with it.
The summer love phase generally comes first. The air is warm, the days get longer, and love is in the air. Both girls and guys take to Instagram to post pictures of themselves and all the hard work they've put in at the gym during the winter. The bars are packed with girls looking their absolute best, and overconfident guys in their bulky watches. The music is so loud that it captures you and makes you lose all of your inhibitions and better judgement. Eventually, you manage to find a way to get that cute girl or guys number, and the summer love begins. What follows are late nights, too much alcohol, stargazing, an array of bad decisions that seemed like good ones at the time, Netflix, the beach, more alcohol, spontaneity, and most importantly, freedom. Whether it's true love or pseudo-love, it doesn't matter, because everything feels just right in those moments.
The adventure phase comes quickly after. Sometimes you're with that girl or guy from the last phase, or sometimes you're just with your friends. It doesn't matter though, because the feeling of wanderlust is the same. The desire to chase a sunset. Or to drive three hours for the chance to jump off of a waterfall. The existential want to find yourself, and the overwhelming need to explore everything around you and be engulfed in that sense of adventure. You drive recklessly through the winding roads of your hometown with your music turned up as high as it will go as you scream the lyrics to the world. Everything feels perfect, and when people ask why you're doing all of these seemingly irresponsible things that they so desperately wish they could do, you smile answer, "because it's summer."
The routine phase sounds a lot more dull than it actually is. No, this is the phase where you find something you love doing, and do it in excess. Drinking by the pool, hiking everyday after work. Binge watching Netflix with the craziest array of snacks anyone has ever seen. Meeting up with friends on the beach of the town lake to do hoodrat things. Stealing your neighbor's keg. This is what fills your days and your nights, this is what makes the seemingly mundane, bearable. While we all think we can drink every night, sometimes you need a routine with your friends so you can appreciate those wild nights even more. You need those long conversations where you try and figure out where you'll each be in five years, and how you hope none of you will ever change. You need the laughs that can come only from your child hood friends as you reminisce about the time you got chased out of the lake by a snapping turtle (hey, it was scarier than it sounds). Summer is all about doing what makes you happy. I've found that sometimes the happiest you'll ever be is sitting around a fire pit with your oldest friends until the early hours of the morning. That's when summer can feel endless.
The homesick phase comes last. You're probably confused, because, well, you're home during the summer. Anyone who loves their school can tell you that home doesn't feel like home once you leave campus. You're family is great, and it's nice to sleep in your own bed. But there's nothing quite like waking up on a Saturday morning, walking into the cafeteria with a miserable hangover, only to have your friends remind you that it'll be time to start drinking again in a few short hours. You're homesick for your bed at school, and all of perfect hours of sleep it gives you after a day of classes. Homesick for the quick little conversations with your crush as you walk past them on your way to that endless accounting class. Homesick for the pizza that you and your friends will inevitably order at 2 a.m., because sometimes you just really want pizza at 2 a.m. But you're friends. That's what you really can't wait for. That's what really makes the homesick phase. You miss climbing out of windows, pulling pranks on each other, eating one another's food, banging on each other's doors with awful sex noise impressions (seriously, it's really not that funny), making decisions that you'll most certainly regret at your 8:30 the next morning. You miss it all.
Summer isn't just a season, it's a lifestyle. A lifestyle that we mentally and physically prepare ourselves for all year. We crave it in the fall, winter, and spring. We count down the days until school ends and the days become longer and hotter. Unfortunately, though, nothing lasts forever. So in these last few weeks of a summer that is slowly coming to an end, take a minute and savor it. Eventually, summer will end and give way to another year of school. With school comes another year of great friends, memories, and copious levels of stress, but right now, I don't think anyone should think of that. Right now, I just want to enjoy summer.
