in case anybody still reads this
From an email to an American friend I met in Ireland:
"My summer has been alright, but I'm having a hard time realizing that it's pretty much over. I'll be back in Vermont by the end of this coming week and in class a week from tomorrow - August 28th. On the one hand it's gonna be awesome to go back up and see a bunch of people I haven't seen for 9 months (I can hardly believe it's been that long) - but on the other hand I feel like I really didn't get to have much of a summer. I didn't get back to the States until the very end of May and spent most of the next two months working full time and training for a 200 mile bike ride that I only just completed 2 weeks ago (which was a great experience but also one of the most challenging things I have ever done). For whatever reason, I'm never able to look back at a summer and say I've gotten everything I can out of it. I feel like if this summer were two weeks longer I could make something out of it, but now I just feel like I'll go up to VT disappointed in it.
There were some good times, for sure - that 4th of July party up in Vermont was pretty fun, and there were a few crazy nights down here as well. Work was much better this summer since for the first time in my 3 years at the bank, I worked with a person who was my age and who I got along with...of course the only problem is that that person is a girl, and it seems like we've finally become interested in each other just as we're both about to move away again. And we're both smart enough to know that trying anything now will only be a disaster, so we just kinda hang out every few days and don't do anything. It feels like we're in middle school.
And my dog has cancer.
And the Red Sox are embarrassing themselves against the Yankees this weekend and I had the misfortune of being at two of the games. Both losses, 12 - 3 the first day and 13 - 5 the second day.
So to recap for the summer:
CONS
-failed an eye test at the RMV; got glasses
-got my tooth knocked out (by the girl mentioned above, who then ate it)
-hit a car parallel parking
-got pulled over for having a headlight out, because of the hitting a car thing (cop let me go though)
-strained achilles tendon (during the bike ride - although riding the last 40 miles in tremendous pain led to greater satisfaction at the end)
-dog diagnosed with cancer
-fell for girl, acted like a pussy about it (and now who knows what will become of it down the road)
-Red Sox lost 3 games to the Yankees in the span of 24 hours; I witnessed it firsthand
PROS
-returned home to my family and friends after 6 months away from all of them
-raised over $4000 dollars for cancer research at one of the foremost institutions in the world; completed 200 miles on a bike in 2 days, mostly through sheer will power
-met a girl who has potential for down the road (although see also CONS)
-kept in touch with people from my study abroad trip (even though my emails weren't as frequent as they shoulda been)
SO all in all summer was...mediocre. But I told myself that was gonna happen. Really, how could it have turned out any differently? You can't come back from some of the best, most unique, and most responsibility-free 6 months of your life and expect to be completely content working in a cubicle, drinking bad beer in somebody's basement, and just generally dealing with reality when, really, you haven't had to for the past 6 months - work sucks, dogs die, girls come and go, and the Red Sox don't have a strong enough pitching staff to win the World Series this year. You can't win the World Series every summer - that doesn't mean you can't have fun playing the games."
"My summer has been alright, but I'm having a hard time realizing that it's pretty much over. I'll be back in Vermont by the end of this coming week and in class a week from tomorrow - August 28th. On the one hand it's gonna be awesome to go back up and see a bunch of people I haven't seen for 9 months (I can hardly believe it's been that long) - but on the other hand I feel like I really didn't get to have much of a summer. I didn't get back to the States until the very end of May and spent most of the next two months working full time and training for a 200 mile bike ride that I only just completed 2 weeks ago (which was a great experience but also one of the most challenging things I have ever done). For whatever reason, I'm never able to look back at a summer and say I've gotten everything I can out of it. I feel like if this summer were two weeks longer I could make something out of it, but now I just feel like I'll go up to VT disappointed in it.
There were some good times, for sure - that 4th of July party up in Vermont was pretty fun, and there were a few crazy nights down here as well. Work was much better this summer since for the first time in my 3 years at the bank, I worked with a person who was my age and who I got along with...of course the only problem is that that person is a girl, and it seems like we've finally become interested in each other just as we're both about to move away again. And we're both smart enough to know that trying anything now will only be a disaster, so we just kinda hang out every few days and don't do anything. It feels like we're in middle school.
And my dog has cancer.
And the Red Sox are embarrassing themselves against the Yankees this weekend and I had the misfortune of being at two of the games. Both losses, 12 - 3 the first day and 13 - 5 the second day.
So to recap for the summer:
CONS
-failed an eye test at the RMV; got glasses
-got my tooth knocked out (by the girl mentioned above, who then ate it)
-hit a car parallel parking
-got pulled over for having a headlight out, because of the hitting a car thing (cop let me go though)
-strained achilles tendon (during the bike ride - although riding the last 40 miles in tremendous pain led to greater satisfaction at the end)
-dog diagnosed with cancer
-fell for girl, acted like a pussy about it (and now who knows what will become of it down the road)
-Red Sox lost 3 games to the Yankees in the span of 24 hours; I witnessed it firsthand
PROS
-returned home to my family and friends after 6 months away from all of them
-raised over $4000 dollars for cancer research at one of the foremost institutions in the world; completed 200 miles on a bike in 2 days, mostly through sheer will power
-met a girl who has potential for down the road (although see also CONS)
-kept in touch with people from my study abroad trip (even though my emails weren't as frequent as they shoulda been)
SO all in all summer was...mediocre. But I told myself that was gonna happen. Really, how could it have turned out any differently? You can't come back from some of the best, most unique, and most responsibility-free 6 months of your life and expect to be completely content working in a cubicle, drinking bad beer in somebody's basement, and just generally dealing with reality when, really, you haven't had to for the past 6 months - work sucks, dogs die, girls come and go, and the Red Sox don't have a strong enough pitching staff to win the World Series this year. You can't win the World Series every summer - that doesn't mean you can't have fun playing the games."