That Summer Feeling

by Bridget Morrissey

As a rule, I did not trust blond men. No real reason other than pure skepticism.

😂😂😂

Her smile had sunlight attached to it, warm and impossibly bright, shining onto me.

“It’s you and me,” she said. “Against everyone else.”

I didn’t need to stand on the ceiling of the world to appreciate what it meant to be alive or anything. I could appreciate it very sufficiently from the ground.

“I mean, when I look at you, I have to squint,” I admitted to Stevie. “It’s like staring into the sun.”

Gar was hands down the worst nickname anyone had ever tried to give me,

Gar is TERRIBLE lol

“You’re always welcome wherever I am.”

“By the way, do you think birds are real?”

There was no way to know my future if I never stayed in the present.

“But there’s also so much life we miss out on when we hold ourselves back,” she responded. “You can never get those moments back. The best you can do is be truer to yourself going forward.”

I’d always thought I needed to earn my place in order to be accepted. Turned out, existing was the only thing required in earning my authentic life.

“The older you get, the more you realize there’s a damn good reason to be afraid of just about every single thing in life. So you might as well do it all, because the fear sure doesn’t care either way.”

“You two are making the changes I never could,” she admitted, whispering. “I hope you never stop.”

“You and Stevie moved your beds together. That’s not something gal pals typically do unless they’re diddling each other.

LMAOOO

All of that passes. It always does. The best gift you can give yourself is permission to keep figuring shit out, no matter how messy it is. You can be a different you tomorrow. You can also own the person you are today. You don’t have to hide away because you might one day change.”

What was love if not holding someone else’s hand through their chosen journeys? Our ups and downs didn’t have to match to matter.

Life didn’t come with a guidebook, or a checklist, or a set of accomplishments that had to be fulfilled to succeed. I got to determine what success looked like for myself.

“I love you,” she told me. “Are you drunk?” I checked.