If any of you live in Syracuse, N.Y. like I do, you know that winters can be brutal. Like, "ready to pack up and move to California or Florida" brutal. The snow is terrible, and the frostbite is even worse.

Even though the spring semester has been over for almost a month now, the warm weather is just starting to make its appearance (I’m talking 80- to 90-degree weather), and I am loving it. Every year after the winter breaks and there is finally sun and blue skies, I vow to never complain about being too hot again (even if I don’t have air conditioning).

Summer is my favorite season. Don’t get me wrong, I love fall: the colors of the leaves and "the sweater weather" are what make it awesome. But summer is my number one. And that’s for many reasons.

One being the sun: even with my pale skin that will burn if it sees sunlight without sunscreen, the sun is the best part of summer. All winter, we wish for sun, and when summer hits, it finally comes out of hiding.

The big reason why I love summer so much, though, is because I get a break from school. During the summer, there’s no stress over when your next paper is due, or how long you should study for your big test next week. The break from school is an especially nice part of summer (my brain sure needs it).

When the semester ended this year, I was more relieved than I ever have been before. This past semester was by far my busiest, and my hardest in my college career. But when I started to take a deep breath over it finally being summer, I realized that this may be my last summer ever before heading off into the real world. I realized that at this time next year, I may be working a nine to five with only two weeks vacation.

So, summer...

I promise I won’t take you for granted this time. I won’t complain about how hot it is. I promise I will go outside at every possible chance I have, and I will take it all in. I will go up to my family’s camp every weekend (or almost every weekend), because I haven’t done that since before I started high school. I will enjoy every minute of this summer.