And almost until it was over, I started to realize that each summer was a short yet permanent memory,

a time where there is reminiscence among the summer before and the one before that and the past preludes.. It was a time where I could be truly free; free from mindless distractions, from a constant and ever-growing unsteadiness of grades, from the anxiousness of subconsciously knowing that for three quarter of a year, everything that I ever studied rested on two hours in a classroom. For me, it was at time of many new experiences, of unacquainted happiness and sempiternal friendship that ended in an uncertainty of laughter or tears. And it was this uncertainty that gave me courage to venture through possibilities that I would never have dared to venture the summer before. I gained, ever so slowly, a sense of peacefulness that made the next nine months bearable. I know that when I am feeling nervous or troubled, and god knows it will happen as often as the flickering of the stars, I can remember again how wonderful not only now, but in the summers to come. And when autumn comes and the teachers ask us how our summer is, I will smile and listen to others speak of different and yet similar stories with mine, and know that I am content with the world not knowing of my recollections, almost like a secret that is too rare to tell, or a word thats too beautiful to use. And someday, the summer of 13 will become as antiqued as the 80s are to us. The world is unchanged, but we have developed a sense of a need to fit in with everyone else. Few people in the world, and none that I have met yet, can truly live a life of carefreeness. We assume too much, and get excited too less. We fall in love too easy, and fail to see how easy it really is to love. We speak too much, but hear too little. We judge on looks because often times the word different begins to be a synonym for bad and normal for safe. Sometimes I wonder which came first, stereotypes that have labeled us since time began, or the person that we actually are. Our knack to think of the future only reveals our insecurity about the present.