The weather was finally nice enough that I wouldn’t freeze to death if I took out the Mule Four Wheeler my parents had recently bought. I called my friend and told her I was coming to pick her up. 

We drove around my neighborhood laughing and talking, and the thought of summer crossed my mind.

I love summer.

I didn’t think anything of it until I had the same thought. Yet again, I waved any concern away. Then for a third time, I had a similar thought.

I love summer, no school, no stress, sleeping in.

That time, I remembered something rather important: it’s not summer yet. 

I miss the freeing life of summer. I miss being up north, lounging out on the lake all day, and enjoying my time with family and friends. I dream of sleeping in every day of the week, not just two days out of seven. I crave the long summer nights that felt like a fairy tale and hate the slivers of those nights I get now. 

I am beyond ready for school to get out, and while we may be in the home stretch, it feels as though these next three weeks are an eternity. Every weekend is mocking me, and every sunny day that I wake up to is laughing at me. 

Three more weeks, I keep telling myself over and over again. In all honesty, that seems to make it longer. One day feels as though it’s a whole week, and now more than ever, I crave the stand-still moments of warm weather and happy times. 

Stress is a frequently used word in my dictionary, mainly used to describe my life or how I am feeling. Stress is related to school more often than any other contributing factor—the stress of good grades, being liked, homework, and living up to expectations. Life is stressful, but school makes it ten times worse.

Then vacation rolls around, and the biggest stress factor in my life is taken away, and I feel a sudden relief. 

There are so many reasons why the three weeks left in school will drag on, but the most prominent one is the fact that I am over the moon excited for summer and all it holds. Summer holds some of my best memories. Whether with friends or family, even the dullest days of summer are an adventure on their own.

There is a different kind of learning done in the summer: real-world learning—lessons from family members and lessons you learn on your own, walking the streets. This is the adventure of learning, the type that gets me out of bed in the morning, ready to go through my day the way I want to.

I do not mind laying in bed all day or getting up and seeing people, as long as it is my choice to make and no one else is telling me what to do and how to do it. 

I get to be myself in the summer and get the control I desperately want back into my life.