Every year before summer starts, I always assume it will last forever and that I don’t have to worry about anything except my tan. I feel free with basically no worries until August rolls around, and suddenly the days start flying by, and all I can do is mourn how great summer felt. This year it was the worst yet. Most of the summer, I was distracted by traveling and being around my friends, I didn’t even give school one thought.

When August started, I was still out of town, so I didn’t realize that by the end of the month I would be back in school. As soon as I got home, all of my motivation disappeared. I had procrastinated all of my summer work, and now I had to cram it all in the short period I had. I think I literally read every single day, not because I wanted to, but because I knew this year would be hard and I had to be prepared for the worst.

I’m still mourning summer like it was my last bit of freedom ever, but I’m also one step closer to graduating high school, which is amazing. I was honestly expecting worse coming back to school. I thought I needed to have everything figured out as soon as I came back, but I was only stressing myself out. I know the year will grow more challenging in the depths of winter, and I’m trying my hardest to ignore it. When the time comes, I’ll probably regret that too.