My one goal for the summer was to have as much fun and serenity as possible. I even decided to prolong my vacation to gain the clarity I've missed lately, and boy, did that go wrong.
For the first half of August, I spent my days in Peloponnese with my partner. At the beach, at the balcony, at the bar. My parents and in laws joined us at some point or another, and that was fun, too. Then, my sister and I decided to visit Albania for the second half of the month. We were so excited to stay someplace together, but most of all we were on the same page about how we wanted to spend our days. Long story short, we spent the better part of a Thursday on a bus from Athens to Saranda, and then the entire Friday and Saturday traveling back by a boat, and then a ship and finally a bus. But that's a story for a different day.
I did manage to relax for the most part of August. And even though I did bring work with me, I limited my working hours to the bare minimum, just enough to complete what I was working on. I read as many books as I could afford. Cooked a lot. Tried out some new recipes. Got the yearly sunburn. In a nutshell, I had fun.
There were bad days, too, as you might imagine. From the anxiety to meet my deadline to a PC crash and from publishing mishaps to a series of unfortunate events in Albania, there were definitely times I wanted to bury myself and disappear forever. Thankfully, I'm not the kind of person to dwell on such things and I'm laughing at them all.
What I will cherish from this summer is sitting on a balcony in Saranda with my sister, deciding on whether or not to book a hotel room for the night, get back to Athens, spend the night at the beach or stay and deal with the misfortune, laughing our asses off, tearing up from the laughter. Our laughter echoing in the stillness of the night. Skin deeply soaked in dirt and humidity. We laughed and laughed and made a joke out of ourselves, like it didn't matter at all.
Did I gain the clarity I hoped I would? Probably not. Am I ready for my final year of PhD? I don't think so. Am I energized enough to write my next book? Lol. Is that going to stop me from doing the best I can? Hell, no!
How was your summer?
Comments