Summer In Review: Moving Out and Moving Up

It's official. Summer is over. Over the past week I have:

- frantically tried to get through my summer reading (Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Elements of Style by E.B. White Jr. and William Strunk).

- desperately scribbled in answers on my summer review math packet

- turned on my alarm clock Sunday night for 8 a.m. practice at the high school the following morning

Needless to say, I've had a fun week. Like many other students, I've been in mourning for the past couple days. Not only is summer ending, but my brother's going off to college, and I'm starting junior year. It's a big fall season for the whole family in my house. In fact, we've just finished all our shopping for my brother's dorm. Our basement is now completely stocked with all the essentials a male college freshmen could need: sheets, pillows, a fan, soap (upon my mom's insistence), and of course, a new pair of shoes. The only thing left? Start putting everything in boxes. We have a little less than a couple days before I become an only child. Unless, of course, Irene floods New England and we get another Avenger Lake. In which case, both college and junior year get to wait for a while.  

Seeing as it was my brother's last summer before college, we made a point to visit all the family, inside and outside the country. If you remember, I went to India literally as soon as school ended. Over there, my brother drove a motorcycle, I touched an elephant, and we all enjoyed my grandmother and great-grandmother's AMAZING food. Oh, and I had mangoes. Don't forget about the mangoes.

Right after I got over jetlag in India, however, we had to come back home. Work started, and my brother's graduation party happened. Over the rest of the summer, my brother and I went to Montreal to visit our cousins and to D.C. to visit our other cousins. By then, it was already August. 

So now it's a week before school starts and I can't believe how fast the summer has gone. Maybe my summer wasn't as action-packed as others, but I had fun. I visited the Mahabalipuram Shore Temple. I crammed in with half the family and then some for my brother's graduation. I watched fireworks set to Beatles' music. I went on my first roller coaster (shocking I know) at Kings Dominion. 

And now? It's time to start packing and moving my brother out. It's time for me to suffer through double-session practices. It's time to start thinking about Very Scary Things like SAT's and college. So where is this year headed? Well, it'll be interesting to say the least.

Change of Seasons by Sweet Thing