I am all about nostalgia and reminiscing on big, fun, and silly moments in my life.
Once I hit the age where I wanted to spend time with my friends without supervision, the beach was our special place to hang out once school was out.
Summer meant throwing "kickbacks" at all the people's houses that had pools or parents out of town.
Before having cars, it was almost always a convo you had to have planned out.
You needed all the details of who was going, how long would we be there, how we are getting there and back, and so on. Parents would have to trade off "I will pick you all up if Katie's mom drops you off". For us, or our parents rather, the beach was an hour away so it was a lot easier to take us to the mall. Maybe that's what made the beach feel so special.
I have always loved the beach but something about this teenage nostalgia really adds to it. The beach felt like freedom. It felt spontaneous. It felt like I was an adult.
Funny enough, today I escape to the beach to avoid feeling like an adult.
That being said, Katie, my long-time best friend, and I decided we wanted to reinvent the feeling beach bonfires gave us back in the day.
Being an adult has really taken away the ease of gathering people and just throwing something to throw it. We used to literally attend safari parties in high school for no reason other than someone was throwing it. Not to say high school parties didn't come with angst and unnecessary drama.
Nonetheless, it was easy to know when people were available. We were all living on similar schedules.
So, we threw this bonfire with all that in mind. We sent a group message a month in advance to get people to sign up for dates that worked for them. We picked the date everyone was available for. Yet, as the day grew closer, we had so many people needing to bail. Valid reasons. Life happens and plans change.
The morning of, Katie and I were in high spirits. We got there and had absolutely no luck getting a bonfire pit. The day seemed against us. Still, we wanted to be positive. We had people who wanted to make it but life just got in the way. If today was a flop, we know we want to do another one anyways.
At the end of the day, we had a couple of friends make it and it was honestly perfect. Once one person got there it felt like okay this is all worth it. It felt really healing to my inner child. Getting in the water, playing card games, playing frisbee, and ending the night with in-n-out.
Adulthood totally did creep in at some points throughout the day but it ended up how it was meant to. Even when bad things happened, like Katie losing her glasses in the water for a few minutes or having my car not start, we had good company and I think that is truly the feeling we were chasing. Just happy to be exisitng and connecting with other people, no matter who or how many.
So yeah, summer is different every year but there is something beautiful about that. These moments can only exist today. Next year, they will be entirely different. So whether you're having your italian summer, nostalgic summer, or hot girl summer, make the most of it with the people you choose to spend it with.