Summer is fast approaching. I can taste it on the tip of my tongue. Every time a warm breeze passes by me, or a certain song comes up, on my iTunes shuffle, I can feel it coming. While the triggers for summer’s senses are different for everyone, one thing is for sure: they are here.

I first felt them a few weeks ago when I was walking across campus and an indistinguishable scent wafted past me. I could not tell what it was, but the one word that crossed my mind was summer. Since then, other happy harbingers of summer have hit me. People in white pants, the smell of hot dogs at the Central University Libraries Cookout, and the sight of Frisbees on the Boulevard all have me yearning for time to fly.

The anticipation of summer–for me at least–is a holy rite as simple and profound as any other. The feeling of wet grass, the taste of hot berry cobbler, the feeling of hot pavement beneath my toes, and the smell of sunscreen all transport me to mid-July, at home where my heart belongs.

A Texas summer is not any ordinary summer. Of course, there are swimming pools and barbeques and lazy days just like anywhere else, but what makes Texas summers special is the heat. It’s the one thing we all love to hate about Texas, but I challenge you to find any true Texan that wouldn’t secretly miss it if it were gone.

This summer, however, I will be traveling abroad for the very first time, a dream I have had since my very first Spanish class. But as glorious as my time abroad will surely prove to be, I will miss July in Texas and hot berry cobbler and watching fireworks.

Summer is always give and take. I always spend the first half of my summer dreaming about all the things I will do to make it the best summer yet, all the drive-in movies I will see, all the picnics I will take, all the tennis I will play. But somehow, one lazy day bleeds into the next and before I know it summer is gone.

So what insight should I glean from of all of this?

Perhaps the anticipation of summer and the remembrance of summers past is the best part of summer itself. Maybe we all go through some sort of post-summer amnesia in which every bad summer experience is glossed over and we feel a sudden rush of overwhelming nostalgia. In this case, will it be so bad to be away from Texas all summer? Perhaps I will love it all the more that way.

Either way, summer is approaching, and those of us who believe in its magic are standing fast in vigil.

Rebecca Quinn is a sophomore art history, Spanish, and French triple major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].