Summer 2021

If you are new here, three or four times a year I post a reflection piece, usually after a semester of college or at the end of the year. Now that I have graduated, I’m expecting to do these around four times a year. This (somewhat shorter) post covers from the beginning of May to the end of August 2021.

This summer was a brief respite of normalcy. I got to go on a few trips to my friend’s cabin with the best people. I worked a normal job as a busser and interacted with normal people without a mask. I worked out in a normal gym and went to normal bars to drink beers.  I started studying for the LSAT... and found out that I had forgotten how to study. (That part isn’t new, I never knew how to study).

It was short-lived. Whispers of people getting Covid started to circulate again. People close to us, all fully vaccinated, started to come down with it. The masks came back. Twitter once again began to fill up with horror stories from emergency rooms and tales of Lambdas and Deltas. August found me shut back up at home, seeing only a few select people.

I have mixed feelings about this new resurgence. I’m frustrated for sure. The United States knows how to beat this; get vaccinated, and then send the extra vaccines to those in need across the world so they can be protected as well as prevent these mutations. Yet we refuse to take action. It’s like we were handed a copy of the math test by the teachers, and are refusing to copy it because Uncle Roy thinks he knows algebra better than the people who created it. 

My hypochondriac ass is tired of staying indoors. If I’m tired of staying indoors, I can bet that most of America is tired of it as well. That makes me worried about the coming months. 

There are exciting things to come through. I’m moving to Seattle with six other awesome kids. I am going to start full-time writing. Lots of exciting plans are on the horizon. 

These are big changes, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I won’t have the same support that I had in college from the institution and my parents. But all the best parts of my life were from the decisions that scared me.

And I can’t wait to start all of it. 

Best from Seattle,

Matthew