remember when summertime was all we lived for?

Remember the good ole days when you were younger and summertime was all you lived for. That faithful last day of school when the bell would ring at 3:15 and you were free. Hugged your friends goodbye, said so long to homework and teachers and you rode the bus home and it was over with.

Now as I approach my junior year in college, I long for those days and feelings of actually loving summer. Don't get me wrong, summer is still my utmost favorite season, yet I actually dread it now. What happened to those endless days of playing outside, pretending your favorite tree was your fort where all your hopes and dreams came true? A skint knee from riding your bicycle down a hill which you knew was too big for you was the worst of your problems. And staying out so late even though the mosquitoes would feast off of you was what made you feel like a "big girl" because you knew there was no way you could go inside to get ready for your normal bedtime until you caught at least ten more lighting bugs.

I find it quite amusing how we all want to grow up so quickly, yet when we reach grown up standards all we want is to go back to the younger years. Today, I wish I was ten instead of twenty. Just to have one more day outside in my backyard on my swing set or with my Barbies inside my room where every corner was a piece of my imagination. Now I spend my summers working trying to get enough money to survive on for the year at college when we all know half of my paycheck is going to end up in my gas tank anyways.

There's no looking back now, and I find it almost a bit frightening. I no longer wish to grow up at a fast pace anymore because for some reason that's already been done for me. I want to enjoy my time now as slow as I can because in two years its all gone, its time for big girl world. These moments that I have with my friends who have now basically become family, I never want them to end. I don't care if I have to do homework and exams along the way as long as I can have those moments where I sit in my dorm room with my girlfriends and we constantly laugh at the most random thing instead of studying until we become so tried from laughing that we end going to bed and our studying goes out the window.

I wish to enjoy my summertime but I cannot. I find myself counting down the days till I return to school (29 days). I believe if we could all just have one day as a child then we would see the joy in some aspects of life instead of dreading what we do on a daily basis. So here's to always staying young at heart even if our bodies and mind tell us differently.

"What about taking this empty cup and filling it up
With a little bit more of innocence
I haven't had enough, it's probably because when you're young
It's okay to be easily ignored
I'd like to believe it was all about love for a child"
-Jason Mraz