Every day, I see people talking about how ready they are to go back to school, how ready they are to go back to their normal lives. This summer, I do not want to go back. I am not ready.

For me this summer has been one for the books. I have rekindled friendships that I haven’t had in years. I have filled my summer with travel, laughter, love, and absolute happiness. I have done all of these things, and the last thing I want to do is pack up my things and move away from it all.

This summer for me has been one of the happiest times of my life. I have been faced with challenges and difficulties that have taught me how to be a better person. I have had to deal with some of the hardest situations I have ever been asked to face to only find out that the people around me were standing behind me the whole time. I have been working on myself and found out that maybe I’m not as ordinary as I had thought.

I have had smiles, tears, laughs, and anger all in the same day. I have been asked to do things that I never thought I could do. All of this has gone on, and I wouldn’t want to change a single thing.

As summer is starting to come to a close, I think about my best friends who have made this summer what it really was. I think about how happy they have made me since I have been here. I think about the laughs and smiles and 100-mile car rides that I wouldn’t have traded for the world. I think about how there were some nights that we would be out until three in the morning, all to work the longest shift of our lives the next day. I think about the inside jokes that were made and the fact that I will never be able to drive past a corn field without giggling just a little. All of these things have rewarded me so much. I just wish I could pack them up and bring them to school with me.

At this point in the summer, I would do anything for a few more hours in the day to spend with them. I would do anything to not have to leave them behind and be away from them. I would do anything to be able to continue to see them every day and every night as long as I got to see them. I would do anything to make this summer just a little bit longer.

So, as this summer starts coming to a close, I have to start realizing that distance and time are things in this world, but not things that will ever change the friendships and love I have for being back home with these amazing people. The best part is knowing that, at the end of the day, these friends are only a phone call away. And even better, I know that when I do come home or they come to me, it will be as if nothing has changed. It will be as if this summer continued, and I will be able to pick up where I left off with them. And with that, nothing makes me happier.