"Oh, life"
September. Already. State College. Already. Last night was my first night back, and a few hilights included a little bit of light-up frisbee, bungee-trampolining, an inflatable obstacle course, and barefoot rock climbing. It's mostly good to be back, but for a very, very prolonged moment I want to look back and think about what has been, to date, the best summer of my entire life.
After a few slow days of being back and finding entertainment primarily in, er, summer thunderstorms, things got more interesting and began to accelerate and then just never slowed down. in the best way possible.
A laundry list of random and wonderful adventures.
Dancing with one of my best friends in a trendy city nightclub to kick off the summer. Meeting someone who would become a really good friend at said nightclub. Getting a chance to handle pneumatic wrenches and motor oil and all sorts of filters. Making - and eating, and even liking! - sushi for the first time. Hanging out with old friends who I'm so SO greatful re-entered my life. and meeting the new ones who were cool and interesting and adventurous and fun as well.
First side-note: I love how two of the greatest summers of my life -two summers five years apart - involved some of the same people. And I love how life can throw a few similar elements at you in an entirely different way and show you once again how amazing these people are five years later. /end side-note.
Playing soccer. Trying to learn basic spoken Mandarin (Nee hao! Woh potunkwa shwa da bo hao :-x ka shu, I try!). Volunteering in a beautiful historic mansion where I worked across a hallway from Yoshi the chinchilla and an 84-yr-old parrot named Josephine.
(A week in Northern California for a family wedding.)
Hole-in-the-wall jazz/funk/rock bars in Bay Shore with live music and cool yet welcoming ambience. Swing dancing in an Irish pub, and in a fencing center that was once a bowling alley. Bonfires on the beach. Trail biking. Learning to belay; rock-climbing. Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows concert at Jones Beach. Exploring South Hampton; tubing and swimming and relaxing on a boat in Hampton Bays with some friends that go way back. Beach days on the south shore. Splish Splash. Nights in Port Jefferson, my beloved birthplace. Outdoor tribute band concerts. LIRR/MTA adventures to Manhattan. 347. 25A. (Does every road lead to or turn into 25A? I'd believe it.) Rocky Point; Miller Place. Biofuckingluminescent jellyfish. Ends, beginning;, more ends, more beginnings.
Friends from different stages and sections of my life all convening in the same places and times. Chilling with an olympic athlete I had just met with some visiting western-PA PSU friends and a high school friend and a friend from summer camp five years ago. Hanging out with my counselor from that year of camp after having not seen her for all of those five years. Picnicking at BNL with my dad and his colleagues. S'mores. Night swimming.
Thinking, 'This summer could end right now, and I would be soooo happy with it.' less than three weeks ago. That's pretty funny, because now I can't imagine this summer without the three weeks that followed that very thought.
I never would have guessed I would end up in Bay Shore again, and in what context.
Becoming very rapidly, very immensely, and very recklessly affectionate with a remarkable guy who somehow just sort of crash-landed into my life out of a clear blue sky less than a month ago. Realizing that he's the rich, athletic, privileged, and ultra-conservative boy that my parents would hate (and I should too . . .), and that I'm probably the pro-socialist liberal girl that his parents don't want their son anywhere near. Having, nonetheless, a spontaneous relationship that was really was characterized by spontanaeity in every possible way. A few of the most romantic weeks of my life. And finally, letting go and moving on. Accepting that he has to return to ivy-league life in Providence and concurrently being ready myself to return to college life in Happy Valley, even as it meant bidding adieu to this summer.
Sidenote once again, this time to preach to whoever is reading this: If something makes you happy, even if you know it can't last forever, it is absolutely worth taking a chance once in a while. Life is just too short not to take a risk or two. I reeeally don't want to get into existentialism or whatever here . . . but in thinking about this, I see a parallel to life in that life doesn't last forever but we live anyway, and can/should still enjoy life. Carpe Diem kiddos.
Up to the very end, this summer was such a huge, months-long crescendo. Excellent.
Here's to moving on from, but never forgetting, everything that happened this summer.