Saying Goodbye to Summer

The 11th of September, 2026

September has come once again, and as the trees discard their verdant attire and the smell of autumn is carried softly on the breeze, a sense of finality persists. These final days of summer will inexorably vanish in the chill of autumn. The warm days of this summer will be structurally integral memories for years to come, that is to say: it was a wonderful summer; I couldn’t dare to dream of one better than what I received. Though I’ve exerted some effort in quitting thinking in this manner at the behest of my old friend Deli, the previous heights of the summer of 2014 were what I considered to be the single best period of my life. Of course, this backwards thinking is ultimately reductive, and measuring all things against that obstinate rose-tinted ruler is less than ideal, but even with the haziness and fallibility of memory, the summer of 2026 has beaten them all.

To compare two good things is inevitably going to do disservice to one of them, but I’m here to sully good things and rain on parades after all, so it’s time to do just that.

The Summer of 2014 was something I held in high regard for many reasons. Of course, as time passes, we favorably forget the bad that came with the good, and the favored moments become the entire flavor of the era, but all things must exist in balance. The bad times must be there to season the good; we have accepted this as a universal truth. Through the regressive act of looking back, our glasses may filter out the bad until we’ve constructed a memory so purely good, so refined, that it’d be impossible to outdo. The rose-colored ruler’s hatch marks are always shifting, and its measurements imprecise.

Even with the knowledge of this, the summer of 2014 was an exciting time in my life for a multitude of reasons. I was just finishing up my second-to-last semester of community college, my IRL friend group was as robust as it has ever been (and likely ever will be), and I was getting into many new fun and interesting hobbies. Looking back, holding this in high regard seems quite reasonable even though 2014 was no doubt filled with its own, albeit very different, adversities.

This is why these things shouldn’t be compared.

The rose-colored ruler is only used by a craftsman who’s always looking backwards. That’s not us, though. There’s nothing to build back there. We’re building for the future.

What I mean to say is: just be sure to build yourself something nice for your summer project next year.