Epic Summer of Memories

At the beginning of the summer, I thought for sure I was leaving.  I had applied for the Protege program, I had sensed that my chapter at the U of A was finishing and I thought it was time for me to peace out of Fayetteville.  Turned out that was wrong, but I decided at the beginning of the summer that the summer would be epic.  I worked to live with intentionality, and I had the best summer I can remember.

It began innocently enough.  One day after work my friend Emily came over to borrow a movie, and long story short we ended up going to a weekday, 10 PM movie -- way past either of our normal bedtimes and way outside the normal boundaries we've constructed to make sure we get enough sleep and function like normal adults.  We chugged coffee and off we went.  That evening was so much fun, and the summer was given a name that stuck:

THE EPIC SUMMER OF MEMORIES

I worked to live each day with intention.  I wasn't sure how long I'd be in Fayetteville, so I tried to make memories every day -- I did fun things with my some of my favorite people.  It was awesome.  Here were some of the highlights:

• Cameron and I beat Super Mario Brothers.
• I went to see the Cooper and Thorncrown Chapels designed by Faye Jones, and spent time with Jesus there.
• Emily and I watched the first several seasons of the Office together.
• Anna and I had an epic day in which we went all over Fayetteville, went for a walk in the historic district, got ice cream, and watched the sunset over Mt. Sequoia.  And harassed Cameron at Mama Carmen's.
• Katie showed me around Branson, gave me a glimpse into her life on summer project, and took me to Whitewater.
• I got to shoot off fireworks at Rick and Julie's house for the first time in my life with a good chunk of our community group.  It was 75ish on July 4th in Arkansas -- such an idyllic setting, even if I had gotten into a wreck on the way out to their house.  But then the cop who had helped me at the scene of the wreck came out and crashed our party.  Amazing.
• Cameron and I made canolis.  From scratch.  For real.
• Randi and Lloyd held a crawfish boil for me.  It was awesome -- my first one, and held in my honor.
• Lauren, Hunter, and I had the most epic group text with so many memes, GIFs, and amazing Buzzfeed links.
• Hunter showed me how to send a GIF via text -- game changer.  He and I also hung out a ton this summer, including that one time we played Mario during a tornado warning....
• Austin and I went to the Tulsa Zoo and the Oklahoma aquarium.  I got introduced to the Strickland Zoo (aka, their five dogs).
• The Grove opened its new building, and I helped Gennie to paint her mural in one of the kids rooms and led a cleaning crew before the grand opening.
• Gennie, Ashley, Meredith and I hung out at the pool together a ton, usually with Justus, Kaleb, and Drew.
• Meredith and Ashley threw me the most epic birthday party at ChaCha and Pop's house with the coolest cake I've ever seen (RAINBOW!!!).  We decided that for my 35th birthday next year, I need to have a Glamour Shots party.  Um, winning!
• Hunter introduced me to Parks and Rec, and I watched all of it.
• I read a ton.
• Katie and I spent a great last week as roommates together, culminating with our last roommate outing exploring Cooper Chapel and enjoying the sunset on Mt. Sequoia.
• Hunter introduced me to the rock on top of Mission Hill.  We went and watched the supermoon, and talked until 1:30 AM.  (The bedtime thing started becoming more flexible as the summer wore on...)
• Gennie and I sat on her porch and talked a bunch, and pushed Drew in the swing.  It was so chill and fun.
• Whitney and I spent Wednesdays in Bentonville, doing fun Bentonville things.
• Hunter applied to tons of med schools, and I helped with many of his essays.
• I went to Crystal Bridges several times.  I got to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit, which was fun.
• Emily and I spent a lot of time together.  She began sharing with me how significant she thought my name is, and was one of the first in a long line of people to remind me of the promises given to Abraham and Sarah.  These are promises I now cling to daily.
• I spent the occasional introvert Sunday at St. Catherine's at Bell Gable.  Gorgeous.
• Daisha gave me vocab lessons.
• Mollie and Lindsey and I became pen pals.  This is my favorite thing ever.  Letters (and cheese) are my love language.
• I finished my promise book, where I read through the entire Bible and wrote out in a journal all of the promises that it contained.

These are just things that pop to mind immediately.  There were so many more.  At the beginning of the summer, the Office finale was on and Andy said, "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them."  When I heard this, I felt the Lord say -- "These are the good old days, right now.  Enjoy them."

And I did.  This summer, the Lord taught me a lot about making the most of every single day, enjoying simple pleasures with great friends, and being thankful.  This summer -- which was incredibly epic -- I didn't go on vacation or spend a ton of money, but it was filled with some of the best memories I've made with friends.  I am so grateful, and it definitely won't be one that I forget anytime soon.