I was standing on the porch, watching the heat lighting spark between the billowing clouds above the house and for the first time, it finally felt like summer. I had one exam left of my freshman year of college but it wasn't for a few days so now at this moment it felt like I had all the time in the world to stand on the porch with the boy I love and watch the sky.
For me, summer has always been a reckless, snow ball effect of days and nights running together and every day feeling like a Saturday but apparently that can be inconvenient when you work all summer. That's been the case for me since I was 16. No matter how much I let myself snow ball into the wild fun that is summer, I still felt that disappointment of knowing that I had to work the next morning. But as I go back to that night standing on the porch, drinking red wine and just letting myself bask in the love that surrounds you when you know summer is in full bloom, it's amazing to see how much I didn't care that I still had a final to take or that I had to work in the morning. I was there in that moment letting myself settle into the warmth on my skin, the taste of wine and a kiss on my lips and the absolute perfection that is an early summer evening when the heat lighting starts sparking in the sky.

So that was one night of perfection, one night that I felt like would last forever. It didn't. I had go to work the next day and take my final at the end of the week (which I didn't do so hot on). The magical, forever feeling that I associate with early summer nights is the feeling that I go back to when the days start getting monotonous. When I can tell Monday from Tuesday and tomorrow's pospectivness depends entirely on how much work I get done tonight and how much caffeine I can get at breakfast the next morning, I think back to the perfection of those few days of summer when the temperature is perfect and the lightning bugs come out for the first time and everything is so simply perfect that I could just cry. By doing this I feel relief, relief from how routine things get and how stressed I get when things get too routine. I've never felt such happiness as those nights. So I ask you this, what is your epitome of happiness? What is your relief, the thing you go back to when things get hard? Maybe you should experience the summer that I have. Let yourself get a little reckless this summer, go off the beaten path for a bit. No matter whether you have to work in the morning, drink 5 cups of coffee just to get out the door, or if you have finals looming over your head, please take time to watch the heat lightning through the clouds. It will make you happy. I promise.