I Believe In Summer

Every day of every summer, I wake up with a special appreciation for not having to drag through seven long hours of school on six or less hours of sleep. Every day of break I will take the time to enjoy my breakfast rather than eating none at all. I will always remember the time spent with my friends instead of eagerly searching for a few seconds to gossip and moan during the short passing periods of my day. Because of these small luxuries that might go unnoticed by others, I appreciate and believe in taking the time to enjoy summer.

I sometimes wonder how better off I would be if I discovered the secret to summer break sooner than the summer going into the eight grade. It was truly pathetic. Up until that year going into eighth grade, my summers were just as structured and busy as my school day. I would wake up way to early, go to work, and then spend the rest of my valuable time rushing like a madman to my various sports camps. My summers were spent like this until the day my mom asked what camps I was signing up for and I discovered my philosophy, “Screw it”.

That summer was a life-changing experience for me. In that summer alone, I formed new friendships, had more fun, and finally learned how to relax without a care in the world. I recall having the time of my life in those first few days. A typical day would be waking up roughly around one o’clock, calling my friends, and then hopping in the shower. From there we most likely would have gone to Great Wall or White Hen to stock up on food. Then we would spend our time screwing around and getting into trouble until really late and finally wrapping up the day by picking where to sleep-over. Whether it was playing devils in the deep at the Acacia pool, cornhole on my driveway, or sipping Mountain Dew in my cool basement after frisbee, I was happy with my laid-back lifestyle.

I believe in summer. If it had not been for summer, I would still be missing out on some of the simplest joys in life. I like to think that summer freed me from being a slave to a structured boring lifestyle that school had created. Now, hardly a day goes by without dozing off in class to think about how great summer is going to be. At the same time, if I continued to have busy hectic summers, it probably would make school less stressful by staying in a year-round groove of schedules. Regardless, I would take an easy relaxing summer ten out of ten times rather than being a mindless fool going through the motions 365 days of the year.