• Eating: My millionth cupcake. But more on that later.

• Listening to: Charles Trenet, La Mer.

• Wearing: The uniform, again. Styled a bit with a vintage button ring & ruffled scarf.

Hello, cheri.

My, January is blowing right by! Just 10 more days & I’ll be well on my way to Tennessee, this month of luxury &, perhaps more often, lethargy, a small blip on the timeline of 2011. But time always flies, doesn’t it?

The fall of 2011 brings with it the beginning of the end of my college career. That certainly feels too soon. It also marks the grand finale of a well-loved chapter in my life; the last of a dear, dear token of youth: Summer vacation.

Of course, over the past couple of years I’ve taken to full-time work in the summer months, filling the poolside hours with paperwork & telephone calls –– the bread & butter of the intern. Still, it feels funny not to have the option.

Summer has always been my favorite season. I’m sure it has something to do with my general aversion to the cold & easy-coping of Charleston’s smothering heat. I love the freedom from having to coordinate a cardigan with every outfit, or cover your clothes with the same peacoat or two every morning. Mostly, though, I’m sure my fondness for the summer is owing to the sea.

Some people have an affinity for the mountains. Mine will always be for the foam swept across the shore, the salt-soaked air, & the shell-encrusted sand of the beach back home. Even now, I’m filled with flipbook-style slow-motion memories: Running down the beach, building sandcastles with my brother as a young girl. We’d stay up as late as we could, watching from the windows the dark tide that was sure to take it away, beating all our defenses; crying in the morning when we found it was gone. As the years went on I tried my hand at catching a tan, girlfriends laying to my left & right. Of course, turning my fair skin is a full-time job, & not one I’ve been able to keep up with for years. But I’ll always be proud of the summer I succeeded, & flounced around town in my summer-colored skin until the fall took it back again.

I suppose I’ll never master one now. But that’s okay, too. There are new things to master. Perhaps worse than knowing this summer to be my last is not knowing where I’ll be spending it –– or how. Wherever I am, & whatever I’m doing, will be in preparation for the summer to come: My first post-grad, & hopefully my first real job. Now that is something to talk about.

But not today. Today, I’m blaring Charles Trenet & dreaming of “La Mer.” Because even as time flies, it also abounds. And I’ve still got 18 months till graduation.

 

And counting.

{photo credit: 1. by me, on my first SLR –– a film, 2008. 2. me, spring break 2010. 3. by Abby Ott. Me, 2009.}