Walking down blocks, Pictures don't stop

So it's officially time to frown at open suitcases and brown cardboard boxes and come face-to-face with the reality of the end of summer. I move Mummy into her hotel tomorrow...and then I move into my dorm on the 25th. IMP (the International Mentoring Programme) training starts on the 26 (bdaybdaybday!!), then Orientation/welcoming the new International bachus (aka freshmen) to Amreeka till the 30th...and then the new semester begins on the 3rd of September. My biggest worry before my last year at Brown begins? I seriously hope I have enough wallspace for a lifesize cutout of Usain Bolt. No, seriously...

I spent much of yesterday talking to 3 of my closest friends from home. We chatted about the ridiculous amounts of fun we had in Form 5 and IB, told each other things we were never brave enough to say then and marvelled at how friendships can remain so strong despite the road bumps of time and distance. Needless to say, nostalgia brought (many) a tear to my eye and I ended up listening to my "ISL Memories" playlist (topped by PREMIER GAOU [2003 Prom] and LONELY [2005 Prom]) and feeling the most beautiful kind of sad-happy.

BUT

If there's ever been a time when I feel like I should have faith in the power of tomorrow and not mourn yesterday, it's now. My Summer has been, emotionally and intellectually, absurdly fulfilling and I can't help but feel the most barf-inducing kind of positivity. This season of limeade-aviators-and-flipflops has taught me many things:

a) There is much to be learned from books
b) There is more to be learned in living the truths that books speak of
c) Duty and inclination need not always be enemies
d) Family = Hope
e) Friendship never fails to surprise, disappoint or reward
f) All I know is Music
f) There is no such thing as "too much rain"
g) Love - of the forever variety - smells like cigarettes.

Believe me, I know there will be many days of hair-pulling, profanity-yelling, book-burning (in theory only, of course), heartache-enduring frustration. But, somewhere during the last few months, Hope convinced me, in all its rainbow-coloured glory, that it can fight every cod-oil-flavoured setback...and win.

"One race, One Heart -
We are the Children of the Sun"
- Yanou