The Summer of Yes

by Courtney Walsh

All I can think about is all the things I haven’t done, or accomplished, or seen, or experienced. It’s a very long list.

I don’t want life to go by in a blink. Not anymore. Because some guy jumped a curb, I’m now realizing that life is short. And you get one shot. All the clichés, it turns out, are true.

“Because times change. People change. ‘Life moves pretty fast. And if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.’”

This is better. This is freer. This is the Summer of Yes.

I’m starting to think the real story I need to be writing is the story of my own life. And honestly, it needs a rewrite.

Since the accident, life has taken on this whole new meaning for me. It feels like a precious, volatile, sacred, unpredictable, fleeting thing, and I’m holding it in my hands trying not to drop it.

Somehow, when he looks at me, it’s like he already sees more of who I am than anyone else in my life, and for a fleeting moment I think it would be nice to be known, truly known, by another person.

Saying yes to simple pleasures might be even more important to me than saying yes to big things. After all, it’s the little moments that make a life.

“I’m out of time.” “We’re all dying, Georgie,” he says. “And however many days I have left, I want to spend them with you.” “But why?” I whisper. “I said I’d be waiting for you when you wanted to come home,” he says. “I meant it.”

The next morning, Dylan calls Hayden to let him know we’re going to take our time getting back, and we spend another day doing almost nothing that means everything, and I realize this is exactly how I want to live out the remainder of my life.

It’s time for me to say no. To the things that are keeping me from feeling alive.

“If you learn nothing else from my life, learn this. Don’t wait to love the people you love. We aren’t guaranteed a second chance—we’re only lucky enough to seize one when it comes.”

It’s not only that I’ve let myself be loved. I’ve also let myself love. And that’s no small thing.

“is that life . . . is good. And wonderful. And horrible, and beautiful, and messy, and everything all at once. And that is the beauty of it. It’s overwhelming, but it’s never boring. And it should be lived to the fullest.