Life Beyond the Bar Scene: Boys of Summer31
Posted In Blog,Booze,Food & Drink,Love,Relationships,Sex,Society
by Laurelin
Now that summer is in full swing, I can’t help but shake my head thinking of how quickly things change, how we shape our lives and how easy it really is to choose our own paths. I like the idea of fate and destiny — the little girl in me still believes in fairy tales and hopeless romance, but in truth, I like the idea that it’s not in the hands of something greater. We are that something greater.
Last summer I was someone else. I was working at a different bar, sadly spending my days working a job I hated, gazing out the windows at everyone walking by with beach gear and wishing I was one of those laughing girls in sundresses. I would go home faithfully every night, crawl in bed and wait for my boyfriend to come home. I ordered dinner for two, drank dirty martinis and let him pay for dinner because his bar was always busy and mine wasn’t. We went to parties, stayed up late laughing and drinking, we slept in every morning we could, and I swear, there were some days where I didn’t care to even get out of bed; I could spend forever like that, hiding from daylight and waiting for our night to fall again.
He was my life, and after we broke up this past September, I dreaded the coming summer because it had always been ours, and now I would be alone. I didn’t think I could face it without him. As time went on and I started healing that feeling got a little easier. Soon it wasn’t sadness that I wouldn’t be with him, but almost…fear of spending the summer flying solo. I had spent the past year learning to be on my own and all of a sudden it occurred to me that I had truly learned to love it. I flirted, went after what I wanted with no fear of rejection, I dated, and I dated people that weren’t right for me ON PURPOSE. Soon I was so excited for my “Boys of Summer.” The warm weather was here, the sun shone just for me, and where as last summer was ours, it never occurred to me that this summer, for the first time in a long time was mine.