What was your summer experience?

In a lot of ways, this summer was a difficult one. There were a lot of stressors and challenges, some losses and heartbreak. But, as it often does, hindsight provides a much clearer picture. The summer started in perhaps the most beautiful possible way when my best friend, who is more like a sister, gave birth to my second nephew. I missed finals week to be there for his birth and spent days loving on my boys, Elijah and Isaiah. My baby cousin also had a beautiful baby boy, Coe, in July. So, in just those ways, my heart has grown and I was immensely blessed in the last couple months. 

As the Athletic Trainer for the school, technically contracted through Memorial Hospital/Joe DiMaggio, I work all 12 months of the year. A large portion of my summer was spent with the football team, doing morning and night workouts in preparation for season, and in the Athletic Training room cleaning, organizing, doing inventory, and ordering supplies. 

I also had some adventures this summer, ranging from a Blink 182 concert with Ms. Gangotena, to cruising through the ancient glaciers in Alaska. My first trip of the summer was to Las Vegas with one of my best friends and my mom. We’ve had this trip planned for almost a year, after purchasing tickets for Garth Brooks’ residency at Caesars Palace (look him up, he’s arguably  the biggest star in country music history). While there, we also took a day trip to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. Both places were massive and incredible, one man-made, one carved by nature. 

The second great travel adventure was an Alaskan cruise with my parents, to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. We spent a week sailing through the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Our ship stopped in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Victoria, and sailed through Glacier Bay national park. While in Alaska, I hiked a 2-mile path to a waterfall with a view of the Mendenhall glacier, went on a whale watching tour where we saw a huge pod of whales feeding and breaching from the water, took a train up the White Pass Summit along the path the goldminers once took to the Yukon, watched otters, seals, sea lions, and Pacific dolphins swimming and playing, and spent a lot of time in the ship’s spa. The weather was absolutely perfect on the trip. Though the weather apps all predicted rain and clouds throughout the week, we had blue skies and temperatures in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Getting off the plane in Fort Lauderdale was one of the most physically shocking experiences of my life. 

Although it was hard to return to reality after my two trips, I had a new course to prep (Sports Medicine!) and preseason football to get back to. This year’s team is the largest one I have ever seen at PPCHS and has made me extremely excited for the season to come. I feel ready for the school year and less stressed than I normally do at this point in August. I believe a lot of that has to do with the way I changed and grew this summer. It was a season of self-care for me, prioritizing my skin care, making time for meditation and prayer, soul-searching and seeking to understand what I’m feeling and why. I took the time to truly admire the beauty in the world, exploring two parts of the United States that I have often dreamt about. Standing in front of the Grand Canyon, glaciers, waterfalls, and icebergs reminded me how small I am and how enormous the world is, but I never felt insignificant. If anything, being in those places made me feel like a part of them, it solidified my roots and connected me more deeply to the earth. I feel that I both left a piece of myself in those places and brought pieces of them home with me. My heart, soul, and brain have been forever changed. All of this contemplation, exploration, and meditation helped me make a deep realization and conscious choice about my life moving forward. I’ve realized that I have put a lot of areas of my life on ‘pause’ while waiting for some next step- like meeting a partner/husband. I have pushed off so much of my bucket list and so many dreams of mine, thinking I needed to be with someone to do them. In celebration of this decision, I have started planning next summer’s big adventure- a South African Safari.