This picture is hardly uncommon or revelatory. In fact, I'd be willing that over a million people throughout the world have this as their background. Its popularity can surely be quantified in its depiction of a moment so tranquil and pure: a sunset. In this case, the Stonehenge sunset is a near perfect metaphor to my dwindling summer. It's a thing of beauty, and I want to capture it forever. But this moment won't last, and, true enough, the sunset and the summer will soon be remembered as only memories.
The "dawn" of my summer merely seems like yesterday. I was shipped back to my hometown of Peoria practically against my will. How could I leave Champaign so quickly? The past nine months had been a treasure chest filled with good times, amazing people, and life experiences that could not be easily forgotten. How could Peoria ever compare? So, there I was facing the conundrum most college kids encounter after their freshman year: how to spend the summer at home?
One option is to complain about how boring and shitty your team is, which in Peoria's case, is a frequent complaint. Truthfully, I subscribed to this viewpoint amidst the first few weeks back in Peoria, even going as far as tallying a countdown until I was back in Champaign. In hindsight, this act was quite foolish of me; if I continued down this wretched path I would have destroyed one of my last summers in my prime.
Instead, I wised up and chose the only reasonable option: livin' it up. We were in a funk during that horrible month of June, due to various circumstances. One of the reasons is that we just plain weren't having fun. The keys to having a fun summer are as follows: do the things you enjoy the most, but combine with a sprinkle of effort and planning, and a dash of creativity. The event that brought us out of our summer slump was the creation of the Wing Tour. My group of friends loves to eat wings, and we had not tried many wing joints outside of Buffalo Wild Wings. Every Tuesday from that night on we had a place to convene, shoot the shit, and enjoy each other's company while simultaneously devouring any wing Peoria had to offer. The summer took off from there, with activities including, but not limited to, mini-golf tournaments, jersey parties, adventures in Chicago, and large house parties known for rowdy behavior. A summer that had once looked weak and uneventful had turned into a summer to remember.
During this summer of love (not really) I began to contemplate the nature of summer, though. Being a fall man myself, I couldn't help but realize that I enjoyed this summer much more than previous summers. This could be due to the brutal winter that ravaged Champaign during the notoriously bitter winter season in Central Illinois. I attribute it more to the general attitude of everyone during the summer months. Self-confidence, not arrogance, is raised to unseen levels. Everyone looks beautiful in the summer, sporting beach bodies and bronze tans and the ever-present smiles caused by the carefree summer breeze. Who could not like this time of year? I tried to cherish the summer even more than usual because of the waning enjoyable summers in my future. Soon, my summers will be comprised of stuffy cubicles and longing glances at the sunshine seeping through the window. It's a thought that won't come to pass for another 5-10 years, but it's a thought that's been eating away at me for awhile. If anything, I would hope that all of you reading could do yourself the biggest favor and enjoy the rest of your painless summers more than ever, because one day the summer days aren't going to mean the same as they used to, and a summer is a terrible thing to waste.
