Even as you grow into adulthood and leave childhood behind, summer still brings about the schools out feeling that little kids get. A feeling of overwhelming giddiness, freedom and carefree thoughts. Life is less miserable and strenuous in the summer.

As the summer starts to dwindle down, I have found myself starting to miss it already, and it isn't even over. I begin to think that just in a few short weeks we won't hear the jingle of the Mr. Softee truck rolling down our streets, the sun won't be shinning as bright, tan lines will start to fade and the sweet, comforting smell of suntan lotion will disappear. Here will be no more sandy toes and salty kisses, and the whoosh of the ocean breeze will turn biting and bitter.

I, for one, don't want summer to end.

I do miss school, my friends and the atmosphere of being away from home, but I will also miss summer to a degree I didn't know was possible. It's like going back to school on a Monday after a long break.

At the end of the school year, it felt as though summer couldn't come fast enough, but now it seems as though it has flown by way too fast. Can time slow down just a little, or better yet, stop for a few days or weeks, if that's not too much to ask. Three hundred and sixty-five days of summer sounds pretty good to me.

So, in my own rejection of everything that fall and winter bring, I propose feeling as though summer is all year round. Instead of letting the depressing, forever gray sky of Binghamton take over, I will only picture clear, blue, sunny skies above. I won't let myself fall prey to the dreaded winter blues, and instead will feel only the happiness that summer brings about all year long, even during the winter. It's a daunting and somewhat impossible task, but the least I can do it try to preserve the feeling that comes along with summer, even if I can't actually control the weather.

Summer is a state of mind, I have been telling myself.

Too bad I don't 100 percent believe myself.

Some people may not totally agree with my assertion that summer should be all year round; they don't like the heat, the bugs, or anything else, but I am not proposing to do away with the other seasons, just the moods that they bring about. So it's more like I'm proposing 365 days of happiness, peace and any other feeling associated with the long and bright summer days.

Each season brings along a different mood, a different feeling, and I love the feeling of summer. Summer is my season, the weather, the feeling — I love it all, so it's going to be 365 days of summer for me.