08/28/2024
I sit here, looking out over the rolling horizon in front of my house, and I find myself on a strange precipice of life. Summer is over, school has started, the wafting breeze of fall is coming back and the ghosts of Halloween tickle sweetly on my nose and heart.
This summer is different. I find my between past and.a future foreign, yet more promising than ever. As I fight a slight cold, I don’t feel the affliction, but rather the prospect once the phlegm is purged from my system, one of the most important times in my life will start.
It’s odd even for me to attempt to describe why I feel this way, and in a sense I don’t think words could truly describe the full depths of this moment of epiphany. However, I will try to describe it regardless.
Somewhere in this world, there was a show called Gravity Falls. While it doesn’t really seem to matter much to describe the show beyond that it was short, it was beautiful, and it ended on a day very much like today. In fact, that was the entire point of the show, to show that summer ends but life goes on, how beautiful that is. We move on into the next season and change our paths along the way. Well, this summer, that wonderful summer from ten years ago seemed to begin anew in the shadows for those who had experienced it. A book came out bringing cryptic messages and quests into the fold, hinting at something beyond summer, while at the same time rushing forth memories we had forgotten to the forefront. People who didn’t experience this firsthand I don’t think will comprehend how blissful having this still unsolved mystery grace our anxious minds. It feels as though the past is whispering to us from the future, lurking and luring us into an uncomfortable challenge promising an extraordinary reward of a beginning. A new, fresh beginning of a chapter seemingly made personally for the ones who waited in the woods and shared the fantastical moments with others.
I feel that way about my personal life as well today. I see the prospects of the future coming and am not sure what struggles will come. I am giddy yet concerned to begin with production of The SpongeBob Musical at The Croswell, not fully aware of my place on the stage but rearing to begin all the same. I feel the same strange sensation I feel with the revival of my precious cartoon. My past joy of high school plays, of being wizards, cardinals, surrey drivers, and washboard players with a cast of exceptional friends calls me to be calm. I have an idea of what to expect when the call comes, yet I have no idea what the plan is. That is bliss. The unsolved mystery partly reflected on crafts the most joy.
I feel like this in all aspects of my life today. I feel my body mending itself and I yearn for the opportunities that mending will bring. I see and taste the sweet succulence of Halloween returning to shelves and I long to lap up every spooky drop of it I can. I see myself being more creative than ever and therefore long for my future imagination to come to fruition. I am finding more possibilities in my endeavors, thus more possibilities make me more confident and lead to more possibilities themselves. I feel like I am ending a story continued and living a life I have yet to fully live. Why we don’t feel this way everyday or even every moment is a great mystery on its own. But today, on what feels like the final day of a season in life- one filled with joy I’ll miss and strife I won’t- I am happy and blessed beyond measure to experience a fall I have never felt before, but it promises something from the past that will feel even better in my future.
Yes, summer might have ended, but something else is coming for us over the waving beans outside my window, and I am ready to embrace it.
Calm and Cultured 