I had a final during the last time slot of the last day of testing. It was my hardest of the semester, and studying for it proved more difficult than I had anticipated. Who wants to study when all around you happy students pack to go home with smiles of excitement and relief, celebrating the completion of their first year of college, or the half-way milestone. I sat in my more-or-less empty room, surrounded by the few things I'd packed into the one suitcase to go home, and read laboriously over pages and pages of engineering notes. The exam itself was comparable to a lobotomy; my eyes throbbed and my head ached from the glare of the fluorescent lights on white paper and the strain of three hours of testing. But then it was all over. My summer could begin.
I spent the first four days of my summer vacation in the Chicago suburbs with my boyfriend and his family. It was such a relief to relax together, both finished with school and preparing for our various summer adventures. But for those few days, we had no stress, no commitments, no worries. It was summer and we were together.
Coming home was also nice, in it's own way. The joy of family, the comfort of home, the familiarity of an old routine... Due to a mix of guests, friends and family, the routine was not long lived, but it was comforting while it lasted.
My brother graduated from high school yesterday. Which marks a year since I did the same. I'm so proud of him, graduating magna cum laude, and so happy he had friends to celebrate the event with afterwards. I wish him all the best making such friends next year at Calvin, and I hope he has as good a freshman year there as I did, full of adventure and trial and reward and success and failure and unexpected turns of events that keep him on his toes. Graduation is an exciting time, and freshman year goes by so quickly. With all the new experience to learn, all the new things to do, it's over before it really begins. I hope he's ready for it.
A cog was thrown in my own summer plans when the Army trip to Angola fell through. With less than a month to go until the big trip was supposed to occur, I got an email saying the trip was a no-go. Talk is in the air of a trip to Romania instead, but the potential still exists for no trip at all. And there's nothing I can do but sit and wait and wonder, and twiddle my thumbs aimlessly and hem and haw and do my best to plan one way or another. If I go, will the dates be changed? And how will that affect the precise plans my mom has spent hours formulating for the reunion in San Diego and the move to Korea? If I stay, do I get any compensation for my time and effort? Where will I go? Will I need shots? A visa? More paperwork? If I stay, can I make plans for the suddenly open weeks, or will it be too late? Bah, I hate not knowing the answer, with the time so close. Lessons in patience, in trust, and in the way the Army works.
The summer is almost 1/3 of the way over, and I don't even know what the next 2/3 will look like. But no matter what happens in the intervening months, whether perfect or a mess, I look forward at the end of August to returning to Grand Rapids, moving Galen into his dorm room, and reuniting with Cody before my own third semester of college begins. I can't wait to see what the next few months, and this next year, have in store.
