Another summer has come and gone, and with it, goes my freedom. The feelings are many when someone my age has to say goodbye to the season of sunshine and relaxation, especially when it means school comes around again.

As I have stated in another article, I actually love fall. Fall is a time of change and renewal, and it creates the anticipation for the Christmas season and a happy new year.

But that doesn't mean I don't mourn summer's end.

Every year it seems that I have the feeling I could have done much more with my summer than I actually did. This was the first summer in a long time I consistently had plans, as I had an internship that I worked for two days a week and I also got a new job.

Even so, with these commitments, comes questions.

What was I to do when I had free time? Should I work out? Practice my music? Could I get away with spending hours on the internet or playing video games?

In fact, it seems that so much of my time was wrought with feelings of what exactly I SHOULD be doing with whatever time I had, instead of actually doing it.

Also came the question of how I could meet summer goals. I had so many set up for myself at the beginning of this break, but after a while, it became less about actually doing them, and more so just enjoying the time I had.

And now, school has come back to haunt me.

Thus I sit, looking back on what my summer could have been, and seeing how it did actually turn out.

As per usual, I view my summer as average. I don't think it was the best ever, but was satisfactory enough to satisfy me, at least for now.

But, what could have made it better?

Could it have been spending more time with loved ones? Spending more money? Having gone outside more? The list is endless with summer possibilities.

But in the end, this summer was exactly what summers are made to be.

Summers are supposed to be times of play. Times of carefree-ness, a time of jovial innocence and utter obliviousness of the surrounding world.

Summer is supposed to be a time of change. But instead, fall usurps it.

Every summer, and at the start of every school year, we have so many ideas as to what will happen. So many goals, so many desires to change, that it completely dominates any other plans we may have had.

Perhaps this should be the goal we set for ourselves. Stop thinking so much of what we could do, and instead, just let time flow, seeing what it will bring us.

During these times of change, if we can focus on the present, we can bring our summer's end, and our autumn's beginning, to a good start.

We just need not dread the obvious.