I have always felt that summer was a weird time.
When I was a kid it was a time of happiness and vacation. Not complete vacation as I recall as a kid having to sit every morning in front of "cahiers de vacances" those books that your parents get with exercises so that your brain does not melt under the sun of Bretagne, Alpes or wherever you would go and so that you are ready when the school year starts.
When I grew up I was only taking some summer "cahiers de vacances" concerning a specific topic where my grades had not been that great so I am not left out when the new year begins.
Usually my parents would bring us the the Alpes where our vacation home was. I remember to hate it as a kid. I mean okay the scenery was great but when you are 10 years old and your parents bring you to a village with 500 souls, including 300 cows, with no TV and no friends, and your only options being hiking this road or that road... It's not the vacation that you hope to have. Fortunately they would understand this so we would also go to other places. I remember quite clearly going to Switzerland two years in a row, also in the mountains but at least there were kids and TVs there. We also went to Italy to visit. I don't have bad memories of this so I assume I liked it. Sometimes also one family friend would invite us in Bretagne (Brittany) where I would literally have a blast sailing, riding my bike, going to the beach, being a kid. And also there was Préchac, where some of my relatives have a big house with a swimming pool and tennis courts. It was in the Southwestern region of Aquitaine. I would sometimes be sent abroad by my parents or to summer camp. I went to Germany, England, Canada, went on music camp, theater camp, computer camp (no comment) and regular camps.
All in all summers as a kid were great. Ignorance is bliss as they say. Yeah total ignorance and no worries whatsoever except "what am I going to wear on the first day of school" or things like this.
Then we grew up. I reached the age where I was old enough to work in the summer. Thankfully this age is 16 years old in France so it gave me some buffer compared to my American friends. My first job was a typical summer job working in a fast-food restaurant. And ever since that job when I was 17 years old, I never stopped working at least a month. Vacations grew smaller, fun was much more appreciated. I also had internships ever since I entered college, every single summer. So to me now summer is just like another season and you might find it weird but thinking of spending 3 months being lazy does not get my fancy.
I finished college about a week ago. I deserve a vacation I guess. But well no, I had other opportunities. I am grateful enough that my parents accepted to support me for an unpaid internship here in Boston. I could have used that money to visit friends in Germany, Mexico, Ireland, China, Japan, Australia, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal, Canada, California, Louisiana, Texas or wherever. But no I chose to stay here.
My point here is that today was my "first" day at "work". What is my work. I am interning for Invested Development, a company that seeks angel investment for socially minded entrepreneurs. Basically. What am I doing there is awesome. I am going to spend my summer finding article topics for the blog, expand our fan base on Facebook and Twitter, and write as much material as I possibly can. The outcome is awesome as well. The amount of information I am going to go through is enormous, the knowledge I am going to get is humongous, the people I am going to meet are tremendous. Also it means Boston in the summer. It means long nights in the garden just chilling and having fresh beers because it's too hot inside. It means Fenway Park and the Red Sox, it means sailing on the Charles and Sunday afternoons playing ball in the Common. It means rooftop parties and wearing flip flops at 3am.(Boston I love you). It also means Newport Jazz and Folk Festival with Pat, Philadelphia to visit Kris, New York City to see Audrey and people happy around because they get a tan on their skin after 7 months of shitty weather. It also means more time to look for a full-time job here.
So yeah summers are weird. Hopefully this one will be a good transition both. I'll make sure to keep in touch and provide you with some new information about my learning experience!
Yours truly,
