What I did this summer

It was the best summer of my life.

I spent my summer traveling through Greece, babysitting for 3 year old twins, waitressing, writing, running, track camp coaching, moving, hiking, playing, reading, and catching up with old friends. At times, I was babysitting from 8am-3pm, waitressing from 4pm-2am, eating dinner when I got home at 2:30am, going to bed and getting up at 6am to get in an 8-10 mile run before heading out to work. It was the best summer of my life.

I left for Greece right after school ended on a trip with the History department funded by a full scholarship I received from the Department of Classics. (This is one of the many benefits of picking a major that only 10 other students have.) I danced the night away with Cretans in the land of the Minotaur; I ran on the ancient track at Olympia, where the sport so dear to my heart was born; I climbed the Mount of the Gods up a craggy face with no trail; I swam in the Libyan Sea. I cried when I left.

But I came home, and came straight back to Chapel Hill, which is, even in the quiet of summer, far more exciting than my hometown of New Bern. I was a counselor at our team's annual track camp for high school students, I logged about 60 miles a week for cross country preseason training before getting injured again (bummer), I wrote for a regional fitness magazine, I lived with my best friend, and I worked often a minimum of 80 hours a week. And after all those hours, I still bounced three checks at the end of the summer. Rent, utilities, text books, food, and gas really add up.

I moved into my new apartment in August, and I decorated every wall with pictures from the summer in rainbow colored paper-mache frames. School is already in full swing, but whenever things get a little hectic, I can look at my walls and smile. I loved every minute of it.