What do you associate with the idea of “summer”? For me, summer is always about emotional growth, discovery, sometimes diving deep into new subjects and ideas, and sometimes spending a lot of time with my family and in the sunshine and turning my inability to sit still and be bored into some sort of action–art, projects, community.
I haven’t been away from the Boston area for a WHOLE summer, with the exception for short vacations and that India internship in 2014, since the summer of 2009. A zodiac cycle ago! If I am tracking correctly, after a stint at a nerd camp in early summer from when I was 10-15, I spent the summer in Boston, being a tourist with my family at first, and then with friends, and soaking up whatever we could do. Trying out new and old restaurants, exploring cafes in Cambridge, getting through all the summer hikes and beaches we could possibly find, and then in later years, going kayaking and biking when my father discovered we could strap 4 bikes to the Subaru and do rail trails every weekend until Labor Day, and he could get us all to comply so long as we’d get ice cream at the end.
The important call out about Summer of 2009 was that it was a liminal summer for me. It should have been the summer before my senior year of high school, but instead of pursuing the path of Ivy and top tier applications, I took the road not taken– and was accepted in spring of my junior year to the University of Southern California to start that September.
But I had still applied to summer internships– at the National Institutes of Health and a program my Nerd Camp Neuroscience instructor had specifically recommended to me– Institute on Neuroscience at Emory University, specifically aimed at research-oriented high school students looking to make a splash applying to colleges or gain real laboratory experience. So even though I no longer “needed” this experience, high-achieving, forward thinking 16-year-old me was so set to hit the ground running when she arrived in Los Angeles, doing this internship was non-negotiable.
I remember that summer started in May– I had taken off of high school a month early, and kept submitting assignments via email. Living in apartments with college students in their early 20s was challenging as I really lacked a social footing and understanding of what their realities were. This was pre-Uber time, so grocery shopping from Buckland apartments at Emory involved a lot of schlepping and the occasional Taxi cab or shuttle. It was a lonely time, even though I had made friends with my classmates, most of them were local and were able to continue their social lives. I had taken to getting to know my two roommates and watching the TV show “Greek” or trying and failing to play tennis, and spending an inordinate amount of time at the Emory Library.
My mother had tracked down some relatives that lived in a suburb of Atlanta, and they had me over on the weekends. They took me in as one of their own kids. The gratitude I felt when they had taken my grocery shopping or had given me some leftovers was unmatched. The kindness and kinship though we had never met before was such a respite from the FOMO I felt because my mother and brother were traveling to India without me that summer for my grandfather’s 70th birthday and my younger cousin’s thread ceremony.
I also remember trying to go to concerts. As a newly minted independent adult, I was determined to do the things I didn’t ever have the chance to do while in Boston. I found a friend to go to a wizard rock show with me, and then I had bought tickets with my roommate to two different concerts in downtown Atlanta. One time, we missed the show entirely because we had misnavigated via bus and transit, and ended up on the other end of Downtown Atlanta and needed to get a cab on our nearly dead flip phones to find out way out.
Though this was 12 years ago, the very same fish out of water feelings are surfacing again here in Portland, and now I have a means to escape. As I stare down into the beginning of July, I have realized that my homing beacon to go back to Boston and Florida and journey home is hardwired into me. It’s not a summer without a beach. It’s not summer without waffle cones, hikes, and wildflowers. It’s not summer without fried dough. It’s not summer without a random thunderstorm. My plans for my 30th birthday mirror some of the adventures I had in Atlanta that lonely summer and in the summers back in Boston. I’m going to 3 concerts and shows in August. I am doing picnics and lowkey hangs. I am hoping for summer walks and lazy days. Even the family Florida jaunt is reminiscent of the Florida vacations we took before they landed in Boca Raton.
I think for August though, I am going to try the techniques that made me enjoy Atlanta. Invest time in others who mirror your interests, never be afraid to go places alone, and always be learning. The lack of smartphones in that time made me always have a book in hand, and I would constantly be finding food places or exploring cafes and corners of campus on my own. That habit only grew in the years since when I was learning Los Angeles, and definitely as I have found my favorites here in Rose City, but I realize now where I picked up those habits.
What makes a summer for you? What are your non-negotiables in the summertime?
XOXO,
Maithreyi
Recent Comments