Dale+Reyes+2014

The Last Summer

Thinking back on my last summer in Iowa there is nothing I would have changed. I would live through that summer again if I could. The cut-off tan lines, the hot weather, the sand volleyball, none of it was ever a waste of time. But what if there was something I could have changed? Something I could have done to make my last summer with the same friends I’ve had since grade school more enjoyable. What would it have been?  My summer consisted mainly of four things. Friends, family, disc golf, and tennis. Not necessarily in that order. I already knew as my sophomore year came to a close that this summer was going to be different. The days of biking and walking to where I wanted to go were over. I had my license and a car. Although it was a crappy car, I still considered that blue 2003 hatch-backed Ford Focus my baby. Pretty much the only perk to it was that it only cost 40 bucks to fill in the tank. But in anyways, all my friends had their licenses and their own cars, all nicer than my own I’ll admit. But in our minds we were free. Who was to stop us from driving to California if we wanted. Of course we never would have done that, but you get the idea. You’d think after being with the same people the majority of the day, every day, you would get tired of them. But for some reason I just never got tired of hanging out with my friends. The topics we talked about were never the same. Some were completely random, others we felt like complete weirdos for discussing. But thats what friends are for right? Discussing things you wouldn’t normally discuss with adults? If I could get the friends I’ve made here to meet my friends back in Iowa that would quite possibly be the best day of my life. A clashing of different personalities and different cultures, I guess you could say I’m the bridge for the two of them. Disc golf and tennis. Quite possibly, in my opinion, the two best sports invented other than basketball. In case you don’t know disc golf is the exact same as golf, but with disc golf you use weighted frisbees, and instead of holes there’s baskets. There’s 18 baskets per course and usually took an hour and a half to complete.Disc golf gave us all more time to talk to each other walking in between holes. And there was just something about being in the woods for part of the time. The peace and quiet, just animals no humans other than us in the distance. I loved those type of moments. It made me feel at home and at peace. I have yet to find any courses in New Jersey but I haven’t really looked. Tennis for us was a way to bring out the competitive sides of ourselves. We were all at equal skill so the matches were always close, never blowouts, and that just made it all the better. We were always the group of kids that would be at the courts past curfew and we would always be nervous driving home because none of us ever wanted to get pulled over past curfew but that never stopped us. And that, was my 2013 summer in a nutshell. If I could live it all over again I would, but now I guess I’m in a new chapter of my life. The New Jersey Era. What it holds I guess I’ll find out. But discovering is the best part of the journey.