We are getting towards the end of Spring, Summer is around the corner, yet the only thing on my mind is “Let school be over”. There is a certain feeling of Summer that I miss, especially now in these last exhausting days of school. I love the feeling of being at my cottage, where it feels like summer will never end. I miss being woken up by the smell of bacon in the morning, along with pancakes. I miss going down to the beach every morning to go swimming with my cousins, before breakfast was even served. The morning dew still on the grass, as we walk towards the beach. The morning air is nice and comforting. Not too cold, not too hot. The water is still trying to warm up, although it’s not freezing, not like memorial weekend. This water is cool. It envelopes you as you dive into the cool waters below. I miss those long nights where we had bonfires with our Canadian neighbors, while the adults talked to each other, my brother, cousins and I would play capture the flag.

In Summer, everything seems right in the world. I feel absolutely carefree. We would go to our cottage, that we share with my cousins, for weeks on end. It is settled on Lake Huron. Everyday was a perfect day. Sunny skys with fluffy white clouds, like marshmallows filling the skies. And everyday, my cousins, Emma and Bella, and I would go down to the beach, brightly colored buckets in tow. Sometimes we didn’t even bother to put shoes on, our feet being used to walking on the rough pavement road, we would walk a couple cottages down, till there was a grassy clearing and a view of a perfectly blue, sparkling lake. The stairs to get down to the beach were metal and had rusted over the many years, leaving them in a brownish red color. Walking down the stairs can be scary at times. They’re steep, and the steps are small and rickety. I’m always nervous about accidentally touching a spider web while holding onto the side rails. Once we make it to the bottom, our feet touch the warm, smooth sand. The wind lightly blows strands of my hair back, cooling me from the hot humidity. As we walk towards the water, the beach starts to get rocky and damp. Where most people would think rocky beaches are coarse and awful, my family has a different perspective. Sure sandy beaches are nice, but you can’t find fossils or beach glass on a sandy beach. Beach glass is glass the was broken out in the lake, and over time it washed towards the shore, the waves and rocks smoothing it down so it’s no longer sharp and clear, but smooth and foggy. My family collects beach glass and brachiopods. Brachiopods are a type of fossil. They look like a fan, frozen in time, never changing. We have jars and vases of all sorts filled to the top, till they can no longer hold anymore. I have started taking most of my finds home now. I currently have three full Starbucks jars filled with beach glass and brachiopods, all from the past year. We have a variety all different colors of beach glass, dark blue, white, green, brown, teal, and pink.

Me and my cousins spend hours at the beach, normally the whole day. At some point my aunt, mom, and the little kids will come down to the beach. Although we almost always have the whole beach to ourselves, my siblings and smaller cousins often make the peace a little chaotic. Emma, Bella, and I go back for lunch, normally we would eat mac & cheese or sandwiches. While we eat lunch, we’ll start a never ending Harry Potter marathon. Me and Emma are absolutely obsessed with Harry Potter. It’s unbearable to stay inside too long though, the cottage is small and doesn’t have air conditioning, so we’ll go outside into the spacious backyard. The backyard itself is huge. You could probably fit two more cottages in it. In the very back of the yard is a huge oak tree with a tire swing, to the left, behind the garage a couple meters, is our fire pit. Every night we have a bonfire. We make s'mores, often switching between ours and our Canadian neighbors yard. Our two backyards are connected so we often visit each other a lot.

My favorite part about having a cottage on the lake is seeing the sunsets. Nothing can capture beauty and awe like a Lake Huron sunset. The array of pastel pinks and purples that cover the sky like a blanket. The beauty can not be captured in a single photograph, nor could I perfectly express the feeling it brings. The feeling of freedom, of feeling at total peace with yourself and the world around you. I find myself standing at the water for sometime wondering, how could one person possibly live with all of this life? When the sun is finally set, and the beauty of pinks and purples turns to darkness, and the only source of light comes from the moon, her beauty is long lasting. The beautiful glow is captivating, and the stars are just as beautiful. The sky’s so clear up north, without all of the pollution and factories. We would get blankets, lay them on the cool grass, and look for shooting stars and constellations. You would be surprised at how many shooting stars there actually are, they‘re faster than lighting, one blink and you could miss it. The dazzling sight is something you don’t see everyday. Oh how I miss this feeling of Summer, the feeling of these distant memories. The feeling of a never ending safe haven. No stress, no deadlines, no due dates or expectations, just the feeling of absolute serenity.