IMG_0790 (1)Since I’m only going into my sophomore year of college, I elected not to get a job or internship like many of my friends did. Instead, I wanted to have one last summer without too many obligations, and I also wanted to be able to spend lots of time with my family and friends.
At the same time, I didn’t just want to sit at home and do nothing every day. My dad is a pilot for Southwest Airlines, and one of the perks about being his child is that flying is simple and cheap for me. However, this only lasts as long as I am in college, so I wanted to take advantage of this privilege while I still can. And boy, did I take advantage of it. I went to Honolulu, Portland, San Diego, Los Angeles, Birmingham, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Boston, and Minnesota. Although traveling was great, I always had a great time at home.
When I was at home, my usual day went something like this:
9:00 Wake up. Usually this was to the sound of my new puppy, Nala, barking at the sun. I live on the edge of a farm town, and my family tends to around 200 walnut trees. The hawks do a good job keeping the squirrels away, but 8 month old, 110 pound Nala does an even better job keeping the coyotes away. She may seem intimidating but she gives great hugs.
10:00 Field work. Some consider field work a chore, but personally, I love it. There’s no better feeling then looking out at the field after a few days of work and seeing the progress being done. Who needs a gym when you’re doing hundreds of squats while pulling weeds? Not to mention, there are few things more relaxing than driving a tractor around.
2:00-6:00 Whatever. Usually I’d go hang out with friends or my dogs. My personal favorite things to do are to swim in a little man-made lake down the street, go fishing, or hunt for pokemon. More than anything, I’d just try to designate a little time out of every day to be with my family.
7:00 Dinner. Summer’s not even over and I miss home-cooked dinner already. This was one of the few times that my entire family could be together. I have two younger sisters and they’re extremely busy with their own schedules, but dinner was a time when we could all be together. We also got my dad a smoker for father’s day, and I can homestly say that I have never seen anyone use a present more than he used thing.
8:00-11:00 Hoop. There’s nothing like ending a day with a little bit of basketball. My friends and I would all go to the UC Davis public courts, the Dairy Courts. It’s called the Dairy Courts because its on Dairy Road, and Dairy Road is called Dairy Road because that’s where the ag students keep their cows. Although the Dairy Courts reek like cow dung, the competition is great, and it’s always a blast.
Although summer was incredible, I truthfully can say I can’t wait to get back to school. Fight on, and enjoy these last few days!
-Nathan
[author title=”Author” author_id=””] href="#" data-color-override="false" data-hover-color-override="false" data-hover-text-color-override="#fff">Button Text
