For me, summer is always such a let down. When you're heading toward the end of the school year, summer seems like the glorious, hot light at the end of a dark tunnel. It's a reward for nine months of hard work, a time when you can relax, go on vacations, hang out with friends, camp and take road trips. It seems that everyone around me has gone on trips to exciting places this year, and all I've done is hang out at home and work. Society makes us believe that summer is supposed to be the be all end all season of the year, but really, a lot of the time, you spend your days sitting in your backyard, thinking about how hot it is and wondering what you can do to entertain yourself in 100 degree heat.

I'm becoming an adult, and the unfortunate part of that is that I have to work. I work part time at retail, and it takes up a lot of my time. I haven't been able to take off enough time at work to go on vacation, and when I do have time off, my boyfriend, who works two jobs, does not. Even though I usually work in the mornings, I'm too tired when I get off to do anything fun. I have fond memories of my childhood when there was always something to do. I had friends in the neighborhood and I didn't have to work, so I could see them whenever I wanted. Even the days I just stayed home were exciting, because I always had someone to see. Even though my family didn't take many vacations when I was younger either, I have good memories of going to Stanley, Idaho for a few days and going on a trip to the Oregon Coast, where everything smelled like seawater and I was washing sand out of my hair for a week. Soon enough though, reality had to set in and I had to get a job, as did most of my friends. Now, it feels like summer is just another season of hard work, which leads to slight disappointment when I head back to school.

I've learned that trying to enjoy a hot, dry summer at home when you work and have responsibilities is less about going out and doing things every day, and more about enjoying the time you do spend outside and making memories that way. I still enjoy taking long walks at night, when the air cools down and the sky turns purple. There's a peaceful stillness in the air, and the only sound is people laughing and talking in their backyards and the crickets chirping. I still have fun memories, even if they aren't as spectacular as the ones I had when I was a kid. I've had board game nights with my friends, and it's usually nice enough to play outside. Although a lot of my plans were rearranged because of other responsibilities, I found ways to work around it. We had an unusually cold, rainy day in late June, but that meant the air was cool for the first time in a month and I got to be outside. The Fourth of July was spectacular, and a memory I'll always have with my friends.

Even though I wish I could have fit in more vacation time or gone on more day trips, and even though summer was and probably always will be a little bit of a let down, I had a pretty good couple of months, and there's still time left. Everything moves so fast, and sometimes, all there is to do for a couple months is sit down and enjoy the world around you, even if you just stay home.