sweet summertime

SO this summer has been pretty darn fun, my friends. I did a lot, slept a lot, and had a ton of fun. Here is all that happened:

The first experience I had was working at camp. The camp I worked at, I have been going to since I was 8. I can say that being counselor was 56148 times better than being a camper. It was amazing getting to hang out with all the campers and getting to know their stories. Also, seeing the camper you ate with at lunch that one day in public is pretty awesome. I also enjoyed getting to know the other counselors that I worked with. It was awesome to meet like-minded individuals who are my age that face the same challenges that I do. Anyways, camp was super fun.

JC Lunch

Claire and I 

After camp, my friend Sophie came to visit. She moved to North Carolina about two years ago and this is the first time I had seen her. She started to come to church around 8th grade with my friend, Cate. We always talked music and about our favorite people on YouTube. Sophie and Cate got us temporary tattoos that were rad. It is weird to see how people change over time but always time well-spent.

So movies in parks are so cool. In my city, every Wednesday night during the summer there is a movie shown in the downtown amphitheater. This night was the best because literally ALL my best friends were there. My friends that came were Anna Bliss, Cate, Claire, Alyse, Lexa, and Kayla. There were also boys there but who cares about boys. You know, we did not even watch the movie but being around the best people the world has to offer is tight.

Now, the 4th of July. The 4th was awesome because I spend it with fabulous people: Claire, Alyse, Cate, Lexa, and Kayla. The weather was absolutely glorious. Naturally, we spent the whole day outside. In the morning, we all met at Cate's house. On her street, they have an annual 4th of July parade and guess what, WE were the parade. Everyone took a short walk to the neighborhood elementary school for cookies and punch. They had the good cookies and it was awesome. Then we ate lunch and headed to Alyse's house to swim.  We chatted away while swimming and of course tanning. Then we got tired and decided to make dessert for dinner. We made the CUTEST fruit kabobs. When we finished, we did our make-up solely for Instagram pictures. Go ahead and judge (I was judging us too). The 4th was dazzling.

Cate, Claire, myself, Kayla, Lexa, and Alyse

Lexa and I take REALLY good selfies (haha sorry Alyse)

Now it was 6 o'clock on July 5th and I was in a passenger van on the way to Chicago for a mission trip. As a child, my family spend some time in the Chicago every year and This would be my first time back. We worked with a church on the South-side of Chicago. We helped the church with various things such as basic cleaning, graffiti removal and trash pick-up around the neighborhood. Every afternoon, we passed out flyers about the church and Bibles. This was so cool to see people I have known my whole life go up to a stranger and talk about Jesus. At night, we would go to a local park and have a VBS kind of thing. I was the student leader for crafts. It was fun to help the kids create something they could put in their room that reminded them of Jesus. I also played a lot of volleyball and soccer with kids. On Friday, we had a free day. And let me tell you it was a action-packed free day. In the morning, we went to the Magnificent Mile. I picked up a shirt from Zara and a shirt from Topshop. I figured out that Zara is my happy place. I could have spend the day there. I also went to the
American Girl Store. The whole place screamed my Kindergarten through 3rd grade self. For lunch, a group of the high school girls ate at the Cheesecake Factory. It was heavenly. In the afternoon, we went to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game. They stadium was so old and reminded me of where my brother high school plays football. That night, our youth group stayed up until midnight playing cards. Chicago was so good to us.

the coolest high school girls EVER

Cate, Graham and I 

The following Friday, I got to see some of the people I worked with at camp. I got see my friends: Olivia, Ashley, Mason, Ben, and Claire (same Claire from above). We ate pizza, Claire and Mason had a jam session on the guitar and piano (it ROCKED) and we tried to watch a movie but that did not pan out. Anyways, camp friends are the best friends.

they are ok, I guess

After that, everything was jumbled. Claire, Alyse, Cate, and myself were never all here at the same time . I have not even seen Claire since we saw our camp friends. We have still managed to stay in contact through social media, texting, and phone calls. Same with Alyse, I did not see her all of June but we still stayed in contact with each other. And Cate, well we are best friends and I always see her because we live a short 20 minute walk or 3 minute drive from each other. I do not know about you but I think that is cool. I did not spend every waking moment of summer with my friends but I felt like I did. I saw their Instagrams and tweets from everywhere they went and they saw mine. For example, Cate and Anna Bliss went to Europe in June and I got to see a picture of them from that day. I am just like wow that's awesome. (sorry about this tangent, social media blows my mind all the time)

Anyways, I love my little microcosm with my people. I hope yours is fun too!


Thanks for reading this far. XOXO - Parker



P.S. I leave for the beach tomorrow and summer is not over yet:)