So Long, Sweet Summer

This summer - the first of my adult life - was filled with travel, food, music, new experiences, friendships new and old, joy, crushes, mojitos, and the return of an ability to really feel experiences in a way that I thought I had had all along, but had clearly lost some of as I "grew up".

Today, I went back to work in preparation for the return of students in about a week and a half. Don't get me wrong - I really loved last year, and I'm looking forward to getting to know and teach and see a whole new batch of kids this fall - but I was a little bit sad to see vacation end. It's not because I had to start setting my alarm again, or resume the 45 minute commute, or spend my days in school - It's because, undeniably, Summer 2010 has been the best of my entire life. And I know part of what has made it so beautiful and special is the fact that time off is limited and fleeting and must be taken advantage of, but it's still hard to say goodbye.

The day after school ended, I went to a local massage parlor. I wasn't really feeling any specific pain - I just felt like I had worked hard all year, and so I was going to do something to enjoy myself a little bit. My school's graduation ceremony had been the night prior, and I was full of pride and excitement for all my students moving on to bigger and better things. I was proud and excited for myself, that I had made it through my first year teaching unscathed and with an even stronger desire to do this for the rest of my life. My head and my heart and my soul felt good, and 55 minutes later, my body did too.

I went into summer feeling relaxed and refreshed. I think having that mindset going in made me more open to experience the joy in all that happened. I'm not going to recount everything I did this summer - it would take far too long, and I'm not near a good enough writer to really make you feel all of the things I felt - but the point of this post, the point of this blog really, is to share all of the beauty and hope and pain and feeling that I see in this world, and hope that it moves you as much as it moves me. So I will share about 2 things. 2 wonderful, glorious weekends that I will remember for the rest of my life, because they taught me new things and showed me the importance of old things.

My best friend's younger sister and her husband are two of the coolest, most interesting, most fun people I have ever met. I have gotten to know them a lot better in the last few months; I've met many of their friends at monthly parties they throw at their house, and I feel richer for the opportunity. I like Kelsey and Ryan a lot, but I never imagined that I would be invited to their wedding. When I first learned I was going to get an invitation, I was excited and grateful that I was going to be able to share in their big day. And I knew that it would be one epic dance party at the reception. They held the wedding, both ceremony and reception, at Brae Loch near Roanoke. On top of a mountain, with the Star City below them, they got married with true class and, in true indie-kid style, with Jack White playing in the background.

The music at the reception showcased the bride and groom's eclectic tastes, with tracks by LCD Soundsystem, Lady GaGa, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Tenacious D all making appearances. I sang and danced with Travis, his sister, her new husband, and all of their friends and family for hours. I gave up for the night several times - and every time I did, a new great song would come on and I just had to go back out on the floor. I danced until my clothes were soaked, and I sang until my voice was hoarse. And the great thing was that everyone around me was having just as great a time as I was. A few times during the night I looked around me and realized that this is what life should be - people who love each other celebrating that love together with music, food, dancing, hugging, crying. We are meant to be surrounded by love. We should envelop ourselves in it. Love redeems us and makes us act like the people we ought to be.

I made new friends that night. I learned more about people I had only met in passing. I got to see Travis's mom drunk.

It was fun; hands down the best wedding I've ever been to, and I'm so thankful that I got to go and take part in such an amazing celebration of love.

I also was fortunate enough to spend a weekend at my friend Kendra's lakehouse in New Hampshire. I feel like this was really the centerpiece of my summer, and that almost everything since then has been caught up in a sort of storm following a few days of living life with such passion and urgency. Kendra is a friend from college; she was a good friend in college - one of the first people I met at JMU, and one of the hardest to say goodbye to after graduation. It's a shame we don't talk as much as we used to, but I'm thankful that this trip showed me the importance of keeping close with those who mean a lot to me. She had invited me up to Lake Winnipesaukee the past two summers, but I wasn't able to make it either time for one reason or another. I don't think I'll miss another trip for the rest of my life.

First off, it has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Watching the sunset reflect off of the water in front of the mountains at the other end of the lake is the kind of thing that makes you feel so small, in the best way possible. I also got to do all sorts of things that I had never done in my life: I rode in a boat for the first time, I went swimming in a lake for the first time, I played Bananagrams for the first time, I got to ride in a 1966 Pontiac GTO for the first time, and see one of the coolest collections of antique cars in the country for the first time. More important than all of the things I did for the first time were all of the people I met for the first time.

At the lake, I met Jon and Kristin, a couple of Kendra's friends from work. Both are incredibly intelligent and funny and sweet; the kind of people that feel like old friends 5 minutes after meeting them. Accidentally slaying Kristin in a game of Never-Have-I-Ever on a shot meant for Kendra was the strangest introduction I've ever had to a person, and somehow it totally fit the playfully antagonistic rapport we shared the rest of the weekend. Jon and I totally nerded out talking about video games and Borges, and he told one of the greatest stories I've ever heard involving New Year's Eve, an unexpected pregnancy, and the phrase "raw-dogging". I also met Cam, Kendra's ultra-cool English rocker boyfriend who seemed to have an unending knowledge of music and a willingness to try anything, so long as it was new and exciting. He was also an incredibly thoughtful and sweet boyfriend, and it warmed my heart to see how much he cared for my friend. I met Melissa, the funny, sweet, playful, interesting, beautiful cousin of my friend Katherine. Many of the most memorable moments of that weekend, of this summer, came courtesy of her. I got to see Katherine and Biz again, friends from college that I see far too seldom. I got to hang out with my old roommate Jenny, back together with the old college crowd. I got to see Kendra's strange, funny, loving family, who I hadn't seen in years. I swear, every one of Kendra's sisters is smart and sassy and adventurous and so much fun to be around that you almost can't believe that there is one family that is so great. I can't decide if three days in New Hampshire flew by too quickly, or somehow stretched out over an impossibly long time. Looking back, it all seems like a whirlwind of music and games and food and fun, but I can pinpoint all these individual moments that surely must have taken weeks to create. It was a beautiful, magical three days that I hope reignited everyone's passion for living the way it did mine.

Yesterday afternoon, as a sort of figurative nightcap on the summer, I got another massage. It was one of the best I've ever received, and my body felt totally loose, relaxed, and restored. As great as that felt, I know that no corporeal invigoration could ever rival the power of the spiritual invigoration of meeting new friends, spending time with old friends, and remembering how lucky you are to be alive and surrounded by wonderful people.