I just recently finished up my spring semester at Elon University in North Carolina, and moved back to my home state of Maine for the summer. The adjustment from college life back to life at home is always slightly awkward, but this time it wasn’t just awkward — it was like a large-scale moment of deja vu.
Let me explain.
Growing up in Maine exposed me to very specific seasons; long, long, looong (did I say LONG?) winters, a split-second summer, and a very cold fall. There is no spring — instead there’s mud season: melting snow that turns into muddy slush, and eventually becomes consistent, cold rain lasting from mid April through early June. Sounds lovely, right? Nope. Don’t get me wrong, Maine is the most beautiful state in the country, and I’m here to say it until I’m blue in the face. BUT, like anywhere else, it comes with its downsides and mud season is one of them.
In North Carolina on the other hand, Spring is a short and sweet transition to it’s 90-degree summers — you blink, and you’ll miss it. By the time my finals rolled around, summer in North Carolina was in full swing. I was wearing shorts every day to class, getting sunburnt without even trying to tan, and the birds were chirping and flowers in full bloom. It was finally starting to feel like beach days and bonfires were right around the corner.
I lived through North Carolina’s transition to from cool, rainy days to warm weather, and finally had summer fever. So here’s the kicker. I returned home to Maine for “summer” during the last week of May. And guess what? The weather is grey, rainy, and cold. So here I am, reliving the entire transition of spring to summer all over again. If time travel existed, I’m almost certain this is what it would feel like. Slowly but surely I know the warm weather will come to my beloved home state, but right now I’m impatiently waiting for the hot sun and colorful landscape North Carolina so kindly provided for me weeks ago.
However, Here & Everywhere is all about enjoying where you are. Yesterday I started my summer internship at Portland Magazine in one of the country’s most unique small cities; Portland, Maine (of course, I’m a little bias). The weather was a mere 58 degrees with torrential downpour — yet, the city still showed me a graceful beauty. The West End is full of beautiful, historic town houses and granola crunchy cafés and coffee shops. I took my thirty-minute lunch break to walk through the area surrounding my office building, and was captured by the way the beautiful brick buildings stood out against the gray sky. And thanks to the rain, trees and bushes alike were finally starting to burst with potent colors of green and yellow. It was magical.
As someone who is constantly stopping myself from looking ahead and moving too fast, this was friendly reminder to enjoy the moment. While it may feel like I went backwards in time and lost my sunny skies, I’m happy to be right here, right now.