As senior year starts to come to an end, I’ve found myself thinking often about the summer to come. I’ll admit that I’m a little burnt out on school, so I’m looking forward to having a chance to relax and recharge, and for the first time in years, my summer ahead is relatively free of obligations or external stresses.
For this final (I think) blog post, I wanted to write about how I hope/plan to spend my summer. I’m hoping that it’ll be one of growth for me, not necessarily on a grand scale, but in the sense of furthering personal passions.
Visiting family in China
My family is planning to travel to China this summer. It’ll be the first time in four years that I’ve seen my grandparents, so I’m really looking forward to the trip and reconnecting with family I don’t often get to see. Watching The Farewell in class near the beginning of the year, I found myself feeling nostalgic for China: the clacking of mahjong tables, the busy, crowded streets and malls, cigarette smoke and low chatter over a dining table on a warm night. My paternal grandparents live in Xi’an, so I’m looking forward to biking on the city wall and eating 羊肉泡馍; my maternal grandparents live in a more rural city in Sichuan, so I’m excited for spicy food and a warmer climate. We’re spending a few days in Japan as well, which should be a fun chance to explore a country I haven’t visited before.
I’m also hoping that a month of immersion might help me brush up a little on Mandarin. After what is now several years of almost never using a language I had an extremely shaky (read: terrible) grasp on to begin with, I will probably be completely lost at first. I’ve regretted how poor my Mandarin is for a while, so I might also take this summer as an opportunity to watch some Chinese movies or shows and attempt to improve my speaking and comprehension.
Exploring nearby suburbs
I’m heading out of state for college, so I’m gearing up for four years of telling people I’m “from the Chicago suburbs.” In honor of that, one thing on my bucket list for the summer is driving to nearby suburbs with friends and exploring what each one has to offer — think Batavia, Elmhurst, Wheaton, etc. I did this one time with Kathryn and Celina last summer, and we ended up spending an hour at a rock and gemstone museum in Oak Brook. Maybe not our most exciting adventure, but a good time nonetheless.
Watching movies I probably should have seen already
When it comes to classic and popular films, I’m somewhat illiterate. For one reason or another, I’ve never seen many of the movies considered part of our cultural canon, so I’m hoping to spend my summer getting a film education of sorts. My watchlist includes big franchises I’ve never seen, like The Matrix and Star Wars, more recent foreign films like The Worst Person In The World and Drive My Car, and classics like The Godfather and Fight Club. At the very least, it should hopefully save me from embarrassing mix-ups, like how I until very recently had somehow crossed Indiana Jones and Citizen Kane in my head. I think I’m also missing some crowd-favorite kids’ movies — this year was the first time I’d ever seen Zootopia — so I’m not opposed at all to adding those too.
Reading
I feel like I’ve probably said this in a previous blog post, but I’ve been trying to read more this year, and to reach for books that might make for a more meaningful reading experience in addition to the more fun ones. I’m on a little bit of a James Baldwin kick right now, but other authors I’m hoping to explore during the summer include Kazuo Ishiguro, Joan Didion, Cormac McCarthy, and Toni Morrison. I’ve got a stack of books on my desk that have been waiting to be read, including Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Batuman’s The Idiot, and Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (I really liked As I Lay Dying, so I figured I might as well try).
Trying new restaurants and spending time with friends
I’m all too aware that time is slowly slipping away, so I want to make the most of this summer and spend a ton of time with the wonderful people in my life, whether we decide to lie in a field for hours or drive to the city to take advantage of a restaurant’s happy hour (food) deal. A lot of my best memories have come from spontaneous or simple outings, so I’m just excited to have a lot more free time in the summer to spend entertaining stupid ideas with friends.
Creative pursuits
I was really into writing for a while in my sophomore and junior year, but haven’t been able to conjure anything for a while now — my brain has been occupied with other concerns, and sleep deprivation hasn’t done great things for my creative process. I also tried out guitar around the same time and have been meaning to try and learn more. I’m hoping to spend a little more time in the summer getting back into those interests and having fun with them. I refuse to let evidence of either make it out into the world, so you’ll just have to take my word for these ones.
That’s my list of summer aspirations! Other potentially more productive uses of time include staying active post lacrosse season, preparing for college, or maybe getting a job, but we’ll just have to see what happens. Maybe I’ll end up just staring at a wall for hours on end — it would probably be good for me in terms of unwinding. Thanks for reading.
Hi Ivy! I enjoyed reading your blog post, it was very lovely. This truly is the first time in so long that there isn’t really anything to do, other than prepare for college. Like you, I am also visiting family in another country, but we’re going to Ireland. I’ve never been out of the country, so it should be pretty fun!! My friend Morgan and I went to many small suburbs around here. Morris, Illinois is a cute town where I had the best pancake I’ve ever eaten at the Morris Diner & Pancake House (it is south from here so it had some questionable republican propaganda). I just recently went to Geneva and it was really cute, but things closed pretty early there. I also visited Starved Rock and its surrounding small town Ottawa, IL- both are definitely worth a trip. We’ve also taken the BNSF train to Chicago but have gotten off at stops like Hinsdale (which had a Mexican restaurant in the train station) and LaGrange (which has a super cute farmers market on Thursdays from 7AM-1PM). If you had to go anywhere I mentioned, go to LaGrange, it’s really pretty and it’s also fun to take the train there. This summer I’m also trying to watch movies that I should have already seen like Twilight, Charlie’s Angels, and Parasite. Take this summer to enjoy yourself!!!!
Hi Ivy! I loved reading your blog post, and I’m definitely in the same boat as you. It’s getting harder and harder to find the drive for school, and I’m also really looking forward to a summer where I can truly recharge and relax. My past few summers have been filled with summer classes/opportunities and standardized test prep, so I’m more than excited to have a whole 3 months of truly focusing on what I want. I think that a lot of the things we want out of this summer are pretty similar!
While I’m not going to China, I am going to be seeing a lot of Chinese relatives this summer. I’m also really trying to brush up on my Mandarin so the aunties don’t make fun of me for my accent.
I also think that visiting Chicago suburbs is such a fun idea. There are a lot of hidden gem stores that you would have no idea about otherwise. For example, I found a really cool game store in Downtown Downer’s Grove, and I still think about it sometimes…
Next, I also really want to get more knowledgeable about pop culture. My deficit in pop culture comes with shows, because my family never had many popular streaming services. So far, I’ve finished Game of Thrones, and I started watching Breaking Bad.
Lastly, I also want to reconnect with my creative side! School has left me feeling really exhausted, so I have NOT had the fascilities to create, but I really really miss drawing.
I’m sure we will both have awesome summers, and best of luck to you in college!!!
Hi Ivy!
There is a lotttttt of things we have to do this summer. I am glad that our international trips somewhat align and I think you lowkey might be my only friend during that time period. When my parents first told me I was going to India for three weeks, I initially felt sad. I do not consider India my home and I am not really close with any of my family there. I felt like I was being taken away from my real home, work, close family and friends, and everything I wanted to do this summer here in Naperville. But over the last few weeks, after reading everyones experiences and thoughts about their home country and other peoples international summer adventures, I have started to become more appreciative of the trip. Now, I am seeing it as more of a break from my regular life, and a chance to reconnect with a part of me I probably won’t be able to again for the next several years. I am looking forward to all of our concerts, festivals, movie nights, and hangouts. I want to spend this summer celebrating our four years of friendships, including all of our highs and lows and the people we have gotten closer with along the way. Congrats, Ivy!