On Feb. 23, 2006, my journal entry reads: Summer is here! Exactly a year later, I write the same thing—summer is here! And indeed, summer IS here. Everything around me acknowledges this fact. The 32-33.5°C reading on the weather thermometer admits it is summer. The lazy dogs sprawled on the stone floors sigh in agreement that it is summer. The motionless trees state the obvious. The dying tarragon I tried desperately to coax to life all of December and January finally expired this week, its browning leaves a testament to my lack of horticultural skills and stupidity in growing a delicate herb in the humid plains of the south. The mating calls of feral cats in the dead of the night prove that it is in fact the warmest season of the year already.
Ah, summer, sweet summer. It was but a couple of weeks ago when everyone was enjoying the cool breezes coming all the way from China and before anyone at home knew what the hell was going on, before it was even reported in the news, I knew it was the northeasterly winds or “hanging amihan” because I’m simply a know-it-all like that.
Now, all of that was just a memory. Summer is back with a vengeance (blame global warming). Ah, but beyond the infernal heat, beyond the bladder acting up, summer and I have a shared history of happiness together. It was during the summers of my life that I did a lot of my growing up, suffered heartaches, and met new loves. It was summer when I learned how to bike and ride the skateboard. Summer when I danced my heart out and felt how wonderful it was to be young and alive. Summer when I read a lot of good books and discovered poetry and passion. It was summer when I had a boy tell me that I had the softest hands. Summer when I had my first tentative kiss and embrace. It was also summer when I met the boy with the gorgeous, kind eyes; who courted and wrote me poetry; gave me flowers and hickeys (he he); brought me to new places and introduced me to exotic things, and, eventually, married me (ha, fooled him!). So if only for the fact that summer led me to the wonderful life I now have, I say hooray summer! Hooray!
