A Taste of My Summer

If you read my blog about all the plans I had for the summer, consider this an update on how all those plans ended up going for me. I had big plans for myself for the three months and anticipated a great summer off. I like to say I am right about many things in my life, even if I am wrong, but I have never been so right about a summer. As I said in the last blog, I usually do not enjoy my summers and I do not do a lot during my break, but this summer was an exception. I did everything under the sun, plus some, and could not have imagined it going any better.

I will take it all the way back to May, which feels like an eternity ago, and start with what I did with the few weeks I had left of the month once I moved back home. It started off causally by hanging out with my parents and catching up with friends from home, but soon took off in a whirlwind of travel. My parents, grandma and I flew to Washington, D.C., to see my brother graduate from George Washington University. It was a hot and busy weekend full of plenty of celebration, along with spending some quality time roaming around the district with my family (and Tommy’s girlfriend, Samantha, who is awesome). After the short weekend, we flew home

and I had a day to pack for my road trip through North and South Carolina with my grandma. It was a great trip full of seeing many popular sites, and some not so popular ones, and having the chance to be with my wonderful grandma for a week.

June started off with one of the best weekends of my summer when I went to Cincinnati with Marie, Kelly and Felicia to attend a musical festival called Bunbury. Not only was I seeing some of my favorite artists perform, but I was with my best friends all day, every day for an entire weekend, not worrying about anything else. After Bunbury, I made my way back up to Ada for orientation as a Good News Bear. These two weeks were some of the longer ones of summer because I was working at home and working at school, but it was all worth it. I met awesome

people I would have never known, while getting great experience working with the new students and sharing my love for Ohio Northern. Later in June, I spent another weekend in Cincinnati with the same group, but this time we went to King’s Island, which is an amusement park, and then went to a Logic concert the next night.

July started off with an unexpected week spent at Marie’s lake house with her family for Fourth of July celebrations. Although this trip was last minute, it was a relaxing week before some hectic trips right after I got back home. After one day for packing, I was on an eight-hour drive with my boss, her daughter and Marie to Atlanta, Georgia, for a weekend spent at a wholesale market. Our boss decided to invite us because both Marie and I have majors (management and public relations) that could help her look for things to change in the store. After the few days spent working on ideas for the store, we had

another long drive back, but instead of going back to Dayton, I was dropped off at the Cincinnati airport. This was because my parents caved in and decided to take a trip to San Francisco for a few days. My brother also decided to come last minute, which I was excited for because I had not seen him since his graduation in May. It was a great trip visiting my uncle and seeing one of my favorite cities, but all the traveling I had done over the summer caught up with me over these few days and I was rather tired and cranky. Once I was finally sleeping in my own bed again, I knew it was time to slow down and take in the last few weeks at home. I spent most of my time working, spending time with my parents and visiting with my friends from home. At least, that was my intention.

For my birthday, Felicia, Marie and Kelly decided to surprise me with tickets to Cedar Point, and if you read my last blog, you can imagine how exciting this was for me. By coincidence, my mom bought us tickets to see Hamilton in Chicago, which was even more exciting, the same weekend, so those few days consisted of plenty of travel. It all paid off in the end, though because it was the perfect weekend to end my summer, while going to one of my favorite places and seeing my favorite musical.

In between all of those trips, I still found time to skydive with my dad, play in a sand volleyball tournament, go to an aquarium and zoo and going to some concerts. I know my summer seems overwhelming, but it truly was the best summer of my life. Yes, all the trips were amazing, but it was the people that made it so great. So, to my parents, brother, grandma, friends from home and friends from school, I say thank you for sharing a summer with me that I will never forget.