The warm summer breeze, the sun-scathing rays that burn the flesh of many to a crisp red, or brown for those lucky few, and the days that stretch like there is limitless tick-tocks on a clock. This year was my 20th summer, my 21st if you count the summer of 1995 when I erupted into the world, and it unfortunately is my last true summer.
Once summer 2016 comes to a close this upcoming weekend with Labor Day, I will be back into my school mode one final time. The leaves will change from green to a multitude of fall colors, which will then slowly shift to naked limbs and white, powdery snow that will grant many a snow day. Once the sun and ground do their job of soaking up the sky's mini ice-cubes, the grass will grow, the air will start to warm again and I will walk across the stage as a college graduate.
If I work hard, and with a little bit of magical fairy godmother sparkles, I could possibly have a job lined up post-graduation. If I am like the millions of other struggling graduates, I may not be this fortunate and will have to slave away at a job I most likely will not want to do my entire life until something strolls through an open door. Student loans loom overhead, which means putting in tireless hours to pay back what I owe, causing summer to pass me by at a faster rate than ever before.
Graduating college is a huge accomplishment and one I will not, and do not, regret. On the other hand, becoming an adult is a life milestone I hope I am really ready for and one that has a lot of sacrifices, like giving up carefree summers just trying to make a buck to stress inducing, heat stroke filled months worrying if I can pay my bills just in time to sneak away to the beach for the day.
Summer won't disappear from my life and I'll still believe in finding it again one day, but I know this summer I've had relaxing and gearing myself up to be erupted once again into the real world as the size of an adult human will not happen again for many years to come.
I hope one day to get married and have little humans of my own. I hope one day to retire and have enough put away to take vacations I may not have had the chance to see in the years prior. I hope to give my kids, and myself, in the future, the opportunity to experience a carefree summer, the type of summer everyone should get to taste. I hope the sun beats down on me with an unrelenting force (blocked by miracle sunscreen, of course) and gives me the vitamin D my body craves once the temperature climbs above 68 degrees. I hope summer never forgets me, because I will never forget summer.
This isn't goodbye and I know I'll have great opportunities in the years to come as an adult and I will get to visit my oldest friend again one day. Until then, so-long, summer, and I can't wait to have you again.
