Summer in conversation and in real life has always been my favorite season. Everyday with a warm sun, Frank Ocean’s music, I have time to regain all of the thoughts and ideas lost during the school year. But this year’s summer in particular was simpler than my previous ones. I spent a lot of summer doing activities like walking on blue beaches with warm sands, streaming of “Only Murders In The Building,” and ruminating with my mom, of course, over Cillian Murphy’s masterful performance in “Oppenheimer.” In all honesty, what else can you do in summer besides enjoy the view in front of you?
All of these activities build the foundation for my summer story, which begins with a trip to a small island in the French West Indies called St. Barthélemy. I spent five days admiring the colors and textures of everything in this picturesque place; beige colored sand that had a smooth feeling, cerulean blue patches of the Caribbean Sea, John Dory-esque fish that would perk around people in the bay, the perpetual sounds of people speaking French, and the smell of baguettes wafting all across the island. It was, in simplest terms, like a slice of the Cote D’Azur. It was beautiful, unusual, and yet comforting all at the same time, which left me with a new vision of the perfect vacation. Or better yet, the perfect summer.
After this visit, it was extremely difficult to return back to reality. I was thrown off for a while after realizing that life is not beaches and baguettes everyday. I returned to New York City and spent a couple days drawing portraits based on Basquiat pieces. I also spent a lot of time indulging into one of my favorite old shows, “Only Murders In The Building.” This rediscovery of the old show led to me sitting on my bed for hours on end watching the newest episodes, which were just as good as the older ones, which in television standards is a rare occurrence. Still, after this binge-watching, I wanted more from television. So I decided to book tickets for “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” and saw them both on the same day.
Watching “Barbenheimer” was an experience I’d like to call a canon event. The perfectly executed cinematography in both films (mainly “Oppenheimer”) made me cry. Barbie was extraordinary and all I had hoped it would be, which ultimately led me to see both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” for a second time…and maybe four more times. It was beyond impressive how Nolan fitted the entire life and complicated history of Oppenheimer through different angles and eccentric storylines for only three hours. For the next week, my mom and I talked a lot and drank a lot of tea together. We mostly talked about Cillian Murphy’s amazing acting; how he tends to play secondary roles in films like in “A Quiet Place II” and “Dunkirk,” but totally deserved praise, even in Nolan’s other movies like “Inception” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” according to our final conclusions over “Oppenheimer.”
And now, my summer tale concludes. The remaining weeks I’m spending in California, mainly for my mom to continue her work here. I take this as an opportunity to savor every exciting moment before the sun fades back into a classroom. While this summer has been a liberating experience, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern—each year, my summers seem to grow simpler and shorter, a transformation I don’t entirely accept. I hold a place in my heart for summers that hold experiences and room for introspection. But life’s propensity to evolve without our consent asks for our acceptance. And during this summer, I accepted solace in French beaches, addicting TV shows, and a newly formed obsession of Cillian Murphy.
