The rain came down all day, a steady methodical torrent that pooled into shiny brown ponds between little hills, blades of grass wilting and glistening, nothing stirring but the wind and the rain and the grey clouds in the sky. Our gutters overflowed, the sidewalks ran and the streets were swept off by a relentless silver stream. We saw no daylight today.
Our cherry tree in the back yard is leafless, soppy reddish lumps lining the ground and covering our patio. Walking outside after the storm, the clouds were streaked a brilliant orange. The air was cold, a autumnal breeze hugged me in greeting.
This will be my last entry for the summer.
Though not officially over, I leave home tomorrow and campus is never something I associate with balmy ice cream nights, fireflies, sand and stars, driving down an empty highway with the radio on so loud. It's been one hundred and eight days since it all began and one hundred and eight days later, I look back, peel away the layers of nothingness in those long summer days, and find a satisfaction with myself and a readiness to move forward. I had no big plans this summer, but instead I seem to have accomplished many little things that have made this year's, arguably, just as or even more satisfactory than the previous ones.
I experienced the gritty nostalgia of Taiwan, inhaled as much delicious food as I could hold in my memory, reveled in the bustling and beautiful city I was born in.
I had my wisdom teeth removed, and although the change is not physically apparent, I do feel a small sense of relief as if some burden has been lifted. It's left me feeling cleaner and healthier and well taken care of.
I dabbled my way through art projects and design projects and made a fair amount of money along the way. I've been trying to immerse myself deeper into the graphic design world, and the blogs I've read, the sites I've visited, the galleries I've perused, all have imbued with a glowing sense of the inspired.
I lost a lot of weight. This has been a constant goal in my life and I was happy to have finally done something about it. I've established a healthy routine of diet and exercise and I've never felt better. Of course, maintenance is the most important part, but I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. These are the golden years of my youth, our youth. I want to shine as bright as possible before the years start forcing me to fade away.
I got to visit the infamous state of Texas and experience all things large and southern. It was being lifted into another world, comforting and foreign and exciting.
Of course, I got to spend time with the people who matter so much to me. I will always remember those car rides, those late night conversations, those walks in suburbia among the familiarity that only time can create. Regrettably, there are still those I feel I haven't seen enough but there will always be another time. But this feeling of being home with the friends I love is unrivaled. I will miss it. I will miss it until we're all sitting somewhere again, a basement, a bench, a backseat, joking and laughing and loving and totally insanely high on life.
What is summer but a vast wealth of time? Time we wish we could bottle up and save when the nights are too short, when we're up to our eyebrows in panic, when we rush push lose ourselves to our obligations. It's a vast sticky pudding, sweet and slow and perfect.
So here's to the summer and here's to the end.
The end.
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