It happens every year.

Memorial Day rolls around and under the influence of hotdogs, parades, and American ambition, you decide, "This will be it. This will be the best summer ever."

Armed with my MacBook, and some finals week homesickness, I declared the same, totally bypassing the Memorial Day phase. I began Googling "free summer things in NYC" and "best summer events," and before you know it I had several street fairs, restaurant reviews, and campsites bookmarked and ready to go. On top of that was a whole list saved on my notes titled "Dates for Summer 2015!" and a separate list, "Summer Aspirations!": show Sam Fire Island, walk the High Line, finish my scrapbook, read that book,.

And despite my fervent, early planning and excess of exclamation points, do you know how many tasks I was able to check off my lists?

One and a half. (Still working on that scrapbook).

This seems to be the trend every summer. It's May, then June rolls around and you're just so excited to have some free time. You soak up the sun, lounge on the couch, look at your plans and smile, thinking about the exciting weeks to follow. But then it's July and it's muggy outside. Hot, humid, sticky, and your body has reached its limit on BBQ. The solution? You continue to catch some rays, wash your hair in chlorine, and enjoy the last of the fireflies. And finally, August rolls around — Wait! How did that happen so fast? Back-to-School ads begin to pop up, more and more each day, serving as a reminder of all you didn't accomplish this summer. You're torn between the allure of the new semester, and the easy going rhythm of summer nights. Summer nights you've seemingly wasted.

But did you really?

While my list remains on my laptop with one lonely "DONE," I can't say my summer is any worse off without its completion. Sure I didn't go camping upstate, and no, I never even loaned that book from the library, but I saw the sun set behind the mountains on Lake George. I took my sister to her first baseball game and her first trip to New York City. I celebrated my three-year anniversary revolving around Times Square. I won Mumford and Sons tickets, and bought some last minute for Lady Antebellum, a concert I'll never forget.

All my great 2015 summer memories have one thing in common — they weren't planned.

We get so caught up in planning, "FOMO" sneaks in; and while planning is by no means a looming evil, it is not all there is to life. Things pop up. Spontaneous trips, unexpected invitations, last-minute phone calls, and out-of-the-blue offers. You truly never know what waits around the corner, but that's the fun of it all, especially set to the backdrop of a summer haze.

So think back to these past few months — what did you anticipate, and what did you not? I think you'll be surprised at all the things you actually did, whether or not you realized you were doing them in the moment.

And hey, if you're not happy, there's always next year.