summer

I’ll be honest. Summer has never been my favorite season. You’d think with how much I love thunderstorms, and how much I hate super cold weather, I’d be a bigger fan...

But the past few summers haven’t been the most fun for me. For some reason, it seems that it is during this particular season, that unfortunate things happen. I won’t bore you with a long litany of all the bogus things that have happened in my past summers - but we’ll just say this: I never look forward to it.

However, this summer, has given me a reason to re-think my disdain for this season.

At the end of the week, when Sunday night comes and my head hits the pillow, I usually breathe out a huge sigh of exhaustion - but it’s an exhaustion that comes from unbelievable amounts of fun, and time spent with some ridiculously amazing people. This summer has been FILLED with some really sweet moments. I have had fun doing a lot of the following:


Camping
Cookouts
Cornhole/Bags
Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee!
Time spent at the lakefront
Rock jumping
A Bon Iver concert
Double feature at the Drive-In
Road trips
Lots and lots of swimming!
Ridiculous amounts of sunshine
Brewery tour
Fiddler on the Roof
Cubs Game (well, this was sort of pre summer)
Brewers Games
A picnic by the river
Playing with all sort of fun little kids
Games of Scrabble (sometimes accompanied by my favorite Jamaican beer)
And so much more...

I have loved this summer! This is the first time in a LONG time I can say that I have absolutely, positively, enjoyed my summer. I have made some new friends along the way which has made it that much more enjoyable, and I feel as though my summer has been carefree and somewhat adventurous. I’ve loved every minute of it.

And the greatest thing is, there’s more to come

A road trip to Missouri (2x)
More concerts
Trips to Devil’s Lake and the UP
More rock jumping (hopefully moving it up to cliff jumping)
Watching & photographing friends of mine in the Dirty Girl Run
And hopefully more frisbee and games of Scrabble!

I am so thankful to all of my friends who have contributed to such a rad summer... and I look forward to the rest of it - the people I’ll see, the conversations I’ll have, and the memories I’ll make.

I think I’m starting to like summer more and more...

list... revisited

Last May, I decided to create a list... I guess you could say it was a "bucket list" - a list of things I want to do before I die. I kind of like these lists because it makes me stop for a minute, and think about all the amazing things that are "do-able" in life. I have been unbelievably blessed to be in a position where I can do some of these things - it would seem a shame not to pursue them!

Recently, I had a friend who had a fear that she wanted to conquer. She was afraid of being in deep water - submersed for too long, and not able to come up for air. She wanted to conquer this fear, and additionally had a desire to go cliff jumping. So, she decided to start taking baby steps to get there. She started with jumping into 10 feet of water in a swimming pool, then worked her way up to an 8 foot jump off a pier, and then somewhere around 12-15 feet off a rock... She's well on her way to getting to where she wants to be...

It started making me think about where I want to be - what things I want to do. I don't necessarily have any fears that I want to conquer (I'm ok keeping my fear of clowns), but there are some "bigger" things in life I'd love to pursue...

So, I decided to revisit my list from last May. The first 30 are "originals" from that list. I've added a few more just for fun:

1. Travel to Africa
2. Write & illustrate a children’s book (even if it doesn’t get published)
3. Create an animated short film or a documentary
4. Learn to sew my own clothes
5. Be a part of a “Compton Initiative” wall mural (Wait - I did this! HOORAY!)
6. Travel to India
7. Live in a different country for at least a year
8. Memorize an entire book of the Bible (Deutoronomy? Too ambitious?)
9. Climb/hike up a mountain (not sure which one or how high)
10. Learn to play violin
11. Be a “parent” of sorts (foster parent, adoptive parent, or orphanage mom)
12. Do something risky for a cause / participate in some sort of “civil protest”
13. Write one letter every day for a year
14. Read 1 book a month for a year (What can I say – I’m a slow reader!)
15. Backpack across Europe – staying in hostels, walking/take train everywhere
16. Learn to speak fluently in a foreign language
17. Work in an orphanage for at least 6 months, if not longer
18. Create and maintain a garden and/or participate in a “community garden”
19. Learn how to cook REALLY REALLY well (all healthy stuff!)
20. Learn to surf
21. Get a meaningful tattoo (HOORAY - did this too!)
22. Learn to love running (got a lot to work through for this)
23. Help build a Habitat for Humanity House (or two, or three, or four…)
24. Ride an elephant! (Elephants are my favorite!)
25. Have an article published in Paste magazine (oh how I love music!)
26. Make sure to do sidewalk chalk drawings at least once every summer
27. Learn how to play the guitar well (yes, even bar chords – SO HARD FOR ME!)
28. Learn how to dance (don’t laugh at me)
29. Learn how to paint (I paint now, but don’t know much about painting)
30. Visit the Holy Land… walk where Jesus walked

Now for some new ones...

31. Go hangliding (or skydiving, but hangliding would be so rad!)
32. REALLY learn the art of photography, and maybe have a gallery of sorts
33. Visit NYC, and get a less-touristy, behind-the-scenes taste of it
34. Go to a concert at Red Rocks
35. Read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (or the Harry Potter books)
36. Run in a 5k (that may not sound like a lot - but I am definitely no runner)
37. Take a train across a country (not sure which country - I just like trains!)
38. Work on some sort of film set (even if only as a production assistant)
39. Learn how to sail (this could be tricky... gotta meet a friend who has a sailboat)
40. Learn how to knit/crochet

Ok, I think that's plenty for now... I'm sure I'll think of more, but I've got plenty to being pursuing.

Oh how I love goals and thinking about adventures. Here's to pursuing some, if not all of them!