This feels like Summer 19

"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." Andy Bernard

I know it seems silly to use this quote since it is from The Office, but it truly does speak volumes. Even though I am only 20 years old, I find myself looking back and thinking, 'wow those were some good days", yet I rarely say that in the moment. We're going to make this post a little more interactive than most of my blogs.

Close your eyes and think about where you were in the summer of 2019, take as long as you need. Think about how you felt, what activities you were doing, what your relationships looked like, etc.

If you are the same age as I am, I had just graduated high school and was so excited to have my last summer back home with all of my high school friends. We had no summer homework, we were figuring out what our next steps in life were, and I for one felt like I was on the top of the world like nothing could go wrong.

If you are any other age, it was the last summer you remember without COVID. Seems weird to think about right? It was already 3 years ago that we had our last summer before a pandemic. There was something in the air that summer, as if God knew it was the last summer we had before sickness took over our whole planet.

I think about that summer often. I think what was so amazing about that summer that made me feel like I had no worry in the world, and that I was going to be that excited about mundane day to day activities for the rest of my life. Yet, in the last few days I came to the conclusion that I was so focused on the future events in my life, like college and meeting new people, that I wasn't focused on what was happening in the moment. That is why that when I look back at that summer, there is not one specific thing that sticks out that made that summer amazing. Yet, I am still thinking about that summer often.

By the end of this year, I will be freshly 21 and be a graduated college student. I may have a job with my degree, or I may still be a barista. I may be living in Boise, or I may be moving home. Even though there are so many uncertainties coming up so soon in my life, I don't want to waste my last summer of college spending all my time being equally nervous and excited for the next chapter of my life, when I can be excited about the chapter I am in right now.

Even though I am not graduating college, or turning 21, or making a lot of money, there is still so much good happening right now. I love that I get to start people's day every morning by making them their coffee, I love being able to go on impromptu happy hours with my friends, and I love that I am young and healthy and able to go on adventures whenever my heart pleases. The other day when I began thinking about how I need to be better with living in the moment, I sent this message to my friends in our group chat-

"This is our last summer before we are real adults and have responsibilities. I know most of us have jobs and maybe taking summer classes, but it's going to be so different when we're on salary or in a career. Anyway I just wanted to say is to take this time to do whatever you want. Be young, cause we're never getting this time back. Go downtown on a Tuesday. Kiss that guy. Or girl. Get that piercing. Try something you think you'd be terrible at but it would be fun. Idk just a thought."

Now I am not encouraging just wasting your life on things that won't benefit your life, but do things you may regret not doing if another pandemic hits, and you can't do it for another 3 years. None of us will ever know when our last day is, nor do we know if we will look back and realize we missed the best days of our lives. Wake up and choose to make every day the best day of your life before you have to call them the "good old days."

Signed, Ems