I came across an Instagram reel recently about perspective, and it got me thinking about this summer. Maybe it’s because Labor Day weekend is here and, as much as I hate to admit it, summer is starting to wind down.
If I’m being honest, this wasn’t the summer I thought I’d have.
I went into the season with a pretty good idea of what I wanted it to look like—places I wanted to go, things I wanted to do and, as always, a list of things I wanted to squeeze into those few short months.
But life had a slightly different plan.
There were some unexpected things to navigate, including dealing with worsening pain from fibroids and ultimately deciding that it was time to move forward with surgery. It wasn’t exactly something I wanted taking up space in my summer plans, but sometimes that’s just how life works.
Still, when I look back, I don’t want those things to be what define the season. Because there was also a lot of good that happened.
One of my goals for this summer was to say yes to new things, and I’m happy to say I did.
I finally made it to the US Open, something I’d wanted to do for years. I visited Bathhouse in Brooklyn. I attended two By Dria events in the Hamptons. I said yes to invitations, got out of my routine, and made time for experiences that I might otherwise have put off.
And then there were all the little things that make summer feel like summer: beach walks, sunsets, days on the water, dinners outside, getting dressed up just because, and those spontaneous moments that weren’t necessarily planned but ended up being some of my favorites.
That’s what got me thinking about perspective. It’s so easy to compare the reality of a season to the version we had imagined. To think about what didn’t happen, what changed, or what could have been different.
But when I look at this summer through a different lens, I see something else.
I see new experiences. I see beautiful days. I see time spent with people. I see moments that made me happy. I see a summer that may not have gone exactly according to plan, but still gave me plenty to appreciate.
Maybe perspective isn’t about ignoring the difficult parts. It’s about remembering that they’re only part of the story.
As September arrives, I’m trying to carry that with me.
I’m not going to pretend this summer was perfect. It wasn’t.
But it was mine. And when I look back at it as a whole, I have a lot of good memories to take with me.
So maybe this is what I’m learning: we don’t always get the summer—or the season of life—we imagined. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find something beautiful in the one we get.
And honestly, I’m pretty grateful for the summer I actually had.
Leave a Reply