Time. Zeit. Summer. Sommer.
I don't want to check the time-stamp on my most recent post because I think it will make me greet. It might have been just after dissertation, or it might have been just after my eighteenth birthday - time has felt like that recently. Anyway, I'm here now and that's all that matters.
What a time it has been as well. Between that undefined point in the past until today I have had one of the most tricky periods in my university career - nay, my life. Between wrestling with myself from watching too many episodes of Modern Family and preparing for an exam/writing an essay, I can safely say that I've had the full range of emotions recently.
The line that is the end of my undergraduate career was approaching both quickly and slowly depending on what version of myself you asked. For the most part I was looking forward to getting things wrapped up, but a part of me wondered what things would be like on the other side. A fear of the unknown? Maybe.
But with 20/20 vision I can say that the grass is at least slightly greener where I am now. I have one more commitment as an undergraduate student and that's graduation - it's nice to be able to write that for the first time. It's also nice to properly start getting an idea of what I want to do with my summer, with four months of guilt free recreation on the cards.
One month is already taken care of with what is set to be the trip of a lifetime. Starting in Estonia, my twenty four days in Eastern Europe promises to be one of the best trips I've been on. Only a handful of days ago it felt like it was a lifetime away, but in little over a week I will be sipping Viru and taking in the Old Town of Tallinn. What lies after will have to wait for another post but rest assured that, much like last summer's Salzburg experience, I will be writing a lot when I return.
As for the other three months? Well the first line of this post might have hinted to you that I'm going a little bit German at the moment. It was initially a source of procrastination during exams but now it feels like a great challenge that I can properly devote time to. I've gone for a little bit of immersion (my phone and Facebook are currently in German) and spend a lot of time looking how I'm going to go about it - radio, television, books, online course etc. I've even been listening to music in German as well!
We'll see how I get on with it but as plans for the summer go I think this one is pretty constructive.
Writing (in English!) and poetry are also high on the agenda, with inspiration from my trip and other things I'm doing in the summer almost guaranteed. I caught the bug again with that poem I published a while back and I'm hoping to produce a couple of collections this summer on the back of that.
On top of all that I've got the 'usual' summer plans, including a huge pile of books which I can finally read, beer that I want to drink and many hours of sleeping to be slept. The bags under my eyes and the aching in my legs are both slowly dissipating but I've got some duvet time to catch up on for sure!
So this post was not a classic way to start what should be a productive summer but I'm a bit out of practice - wouldn't you agree? - and can only get better again. I hope everyone is having a great start to their respective summers and that you are as excited about what the next few months hold as much as I am!
Thanks for reading,
Martin.
