Friday, Saturday, Sunday

     These past few days have reminded me of the many spectra of life that there are. Friday was our very last day of high school ever. It hasn't really hit me yet on an emotional level, so I haven't started crying or even gotten all that sentimental yet. But it has kind of occurred to me that at the end of the summer, I'll not be going back to the same thing I've known for so many years. And that feels really out of place. Like, it used to be stifling and panicky to know that I was stuck between the walls of Smithsburg High School every single day. But now the vastness of not being between those walls makes me panic in a whole new way. To know that if I were to go back there this fall, I wouldn't be welcome anymore. I'd be a guest. I'd have to get a visitors pass and none of my friends would be there waiting for me. Those tiny little high school routines we've developed over the years simply ceased to exist the minute we walked out of school on Friday afternoon. And that's really weird. But I'm not like sad or uber-reflective about my time there, at least not yet. After school on Friday, as SE and AB already talked about, a bunch of us went over to SE's to hang out, just talk, play games, eat food, mess around on instruments. And looking back on that spectacular evening, it really hit home for me one of the things that our English teacher told us during our last class with her. She said that after high school, you get to choose your own relationships. You're not just stuck with the same people for years because of proximity anymore. You can cut the dead weight, get rid of the people you don't care about or don't care about you. And it was like "Wow, these are the relationships I'm choosing to have. School has ended, and I still want to be with these people." And, maybe this is mean or heartless, but I've been thinking about certain people that I'm really kind of excited to never have to see again. Like, in high school, people are in your life because they live near you, because they happen to be in the same place as you. But afterwards, that doesn't matter. You get to forget all about the people who didn't make an impact on your life and focus on the people who did. And that is pretty cool. It's freeing, really. Something else I realized and have been thinking about since then is this: you know how people see cute groups of friends and are like "Awww friendship goals." Well, I've met my friendship goals. Because I have the most awesome group of friends on the planet. I wouldn't trade 'em for a million bucks and there's nothing about them that could be improved.
     Then Saturday, I spent the whole day with my mom, something I haven't done in far too long, and in the evening we went to my grandma's house and all three of us hung out. It was awesome. And another thing that our English teacher said came to me: after high school your friends become your family and your family become your friends. I really do think of my mom and grandma as my really good friends. And I've missed spending time with them because school has made me so busy. That's one thing I really love about summer is that I see so much more of my family.

This quote fits this whole weekend perfectly. 

    Then today was an interesting day. I went to church without my family (my mom is sick and my brother and dad got home late last night from a tractor pull and decided to sleep in). After church, my family and KM went to a Memorial Day picnic at my uncle's house. Usually (and even today) I dread these picnics. It always seems like I have no one to talk to, and I'm the outsider who's not clad in a bikini or drinking a beer or whatever. But today it was actually okay. I hung out with my bro and KM and didn't have to pay attention to anyone else. And also my uncle's dogs are adorable. Then after that, me, bro and KM went to KM's house where we ate for a second time (there was food at the picnic, and again at KM's house) and then we played Frisbee Golf with KM's family for an hour or so, which is this game where you have to try and get the Frisbee into a bucket, and the buckets were placed at various locations around KM's backyard. Needless to say, I was colossally bad at this game. It's funny because lately I've been able to recognize spurts of maturity in myself. Like if someone had asked my 15 or 16 year old self to go to KM's house with my brother and just chill with her family, I would have been like "But I don't know them well! It'll be so awkward!" but today I was just like "Sure okay. It could be fun." And it really was. I think I'm getting better about not over-analyzing things and not making them out to be more awkward than they have to be. The same goes for going out to ice cream with KM and my bro's friend AB (ugh another AB! We'll call him...Abow). I mean I really don't know Abow at all. We went to school together for some years in elementary school and then two years in high school, but we never hung out or anything. But then tonight I'm sitting in his truck listening to him and my bro talk about trucks in terms I don't understand at all. And sure, I was a little bit of a fifth wheel, but let's be honest, when anyone's around Abow and my brother, they're bound to be a fifth wheel just because they never stop talking to each other. It's actually adorable. Anyway, two years ago I would have thought that whole situation sounded super awkward and terrible, but it really wasn't at all. I actually had a really good time. And it was an interesting look into the lives of people a few years older than me, how they interact and deal with the world now that they're freshly on their own. And that's where I'll be really soon.
     So on Friday, my life was about friends, peers. On Saturday, my life was about family, adults. And today it was about people who were in my same position not long ago, and who I will be soon. My near future. Anyway, it's been a good first few days of summer. Here's hoping the rest goes just as well.

-VaughnDL