Best summer ever?

Every summer everyone is like this will be the best summer ever. And more likely than not, summer will not have turned out as they had dreamed. Everyone wants that summer full of adventures, whether it'd be road trips with friends, hanging out at the beach, or summer love. Everyone has that perfect summer in their heads. We all expect summer to be certain things, and it never works out and then we feel like that summer wasn't the best.

But it's the little things that happen everyday that add up to a nice summer. It could be something totally unexpected.

I don't know if it's just me, but I think getting lost with friends is fun. Not the kind of lost you get in a sketchy neighbourhood, but the kind of lost you get exploring downtown or wherever. At first it's stressful and frustrating. You need to be somewhere but you can't find it. You may be lost, but along the way, you find all these new places- new shops/cafes/cool spots- that you never knew even existed. You discover parts of your city, or another city, and there's something in the discovery of something new, something cool that makes getting lost fun. And also, after you find your way back to where you need to be, you can have a good laugh with your travel buddy. It's funny to think back to that one time you got lost in your own city or a city you just traveled to.

Something that makes summer so great is every morning you wake up and realize yes, there's no school today! Unless you have to go to summer school or something... then I guess you don't get to wake up feeling excited. There's also that feeling at night, when you realize you can watch all the movies or TV episodes you want on Netflix because there's no homework to do and no school to wake up for the next morning. Some nights, at 12 or 1 AM I'll decide that I'm in the mood for a certain movie, and start watching it right then. Back when school was still in session, I'd have to wait until Friday or Saturday to watch movies, but by the time Friday rolled around, I was no longer in the mood for that movie I wanted to watch on Tuesday. The knowledge of knowing you can do whatever the hell you want is amazing. I love it.

Just lying in the summer sun, soaking in the heat, whether you're on the beach, in a park, or in your backyard. It just feels so summery and relaxing staring up at the clear blue sky, with the sun warming your skin, birds chirping away, and maybe have someone there to enjoy the sun with. Enough said. Just lying in the sun is summer enough.

Eating ice cream! Eating ice cream by the water. With a friend. Maybe catching up on life. With sunglasses on. Perfect.

Taking pictures. Pictures of nature, people, places, things. Everything. Posed pictures. Spontaneous pictures. Blurry pictures. Any kind of pictures. The best thing is developing those pictures and either hanging them on the wall or putting them in photo albums. Don't hide your photos in memory cards or in your computer. Print them out, it makes them that much cooler.

All these things- getting lost, sleeping in, staying up late for no reason, watching movies, the sun, ice cream, photos- make up a pretty perfect summer. The best summer is when there is no plan and you just do whatever, go with the flow. Just let life take you hand and see where it leads you.