Katherine

Every summer I get in a funk. Without schoolwork to keep me busy and without grades to help motivate me, I sink into a pattern of sleeping all day and lounging around all night. Many of my friends go out of town, and I feel stuck at home with no one to talk to. (I have a brother, but he is smelly and gross.)

But this summer is going to be different. I’m not claiming that this will be the best summer everrrrr, just a better summer than most.

There used to be this guy in my grade who, at the end of the school year, would tell my friends and me, “I’m going to be totally hot next year. I’m going to come back and you won’t even recognize me because of my amazing body and six-pack.” Every fall, he’d come back just as tubby as ever. This is all to say that I’m not expecting any life-changing transformations; I just think I’m going to have some fun.

This positive thinking is the result of two revelations. The first is that if I make an effort to get out of the house at least every other day, I won’t be as sulky and depressed. The more I get out to take a walk, go to the store, or visit my grandmother, the less bummed I’ll feel about not having a wealth of people to hang out with or events to attend. Not being social doesn’t mean not being active, and while reading is nice, being in one place all the time is hella depressing.

My second realization is that I don’t have to think up complex premises in order to ask people to hang out with me. Before, I would never ask someone I kind of knew to hang out unless I had some sort of master plan. Now I realize that I can just be like, “Yo homie, let’s hang,” AND PEOPLE WILL ACTUALLY SAY YES.

I know this sounds really simple. It’s because it is. I’ve been good at one thing for so long—hanging out alone and entertaining myself—that I never even thought through the realllllyyy basic ways of being a human being. This is all so astoundingly basic that I can’t even believe I haven’t thought of this before.

So when my summer started this past week, I visited with my grandmother, went to the pool and to a movie with a friend, asked someone to hang out, and didn’t take it personally when they were busy. Annnnddd I’m not as bummed about summer anymore. It’s going to be so average that I could burst with joy. ♦