Ah. Summertime.

The sun snakes down below the hills once more, ending a perfect summer day. What did you do with it? A shopping frenzy at the mall, or a manicure for some of us. Break dancing and riding generic big wheels down the hill for others. We can't put it into words, exactly, but summer holds that kind of magic. That brilliance. That warmth that you can't put your finger on until it's long gone, and you're lying in your bed, waiting for another day.

Summer is the beginning of vacations to far off places, preferably with coconuts and tiki heads. It's also a time to relax, and enjoy the small things around you that you hadn't noticed before. The certain bend of a tree branch in your yard, or that certain place at the local pool that gets your legs, like, so tan.

To be honest, summer is what you make of it. It's end of June, and I'm freaking out because one third of my summer has gone by and I haven't even noticed it. Summertime is the life for some people. It is for me. Like most people, I'm carefree. Ready for anything. Charged with manic electricity, that fills up every inch of my being. Summers are God's gift to me, and I thank him for it.

So what are you going to do with your summer? Floating around the world toting London's finest? Maybe visit sweet old relatives in another state? Mhmmm, go to the beach?

Or setting off firecrackers in the street? Having twizzler fights in the alleyway? Play handball? Zoom around on your Harrows with your friends like bike gang hooligans, until someone presses down their car horn, and your forced to trot back to your houses, cool air pumping through your lungs? Personally, I'm with you guys. Although it's nice, after awhile, I get bored with long seaside trips. I want to be somewhere where there is always something exciting going on: My neighborhood.

One of my, and many others', probably, favorite thing to do on long summer days is sit down at the computer and write. My siblings are usually out everyday, and my parents at work, so what better things to do than work on some Microsoft Word?

It's easier for me to write when nobody is around. It makes me feel safer that way, somehow, and I can be alone with my thoughts. My characters and ideas dance and fill up the air around me, and I type until my fingers get sore. I always feel refreshed and at ease when I'm writing, just like I feel when I write for Whyville. I'm sure that many other columnists and guest writers feel the same way.

So summertime has at last dawned upon us. I'm ready to fold up my laptop and come inside the house now, for it is far too dark on the deck. Before I leave, I take in a deep breath if that crisp cool air that makes New York at night such a lovely lady.

But above all the things I said, the true joy of summer as a kid and even now, is doing absolutely nothing out on the street until sundown. Kill time until summer is done, and we are all a year older, a year closer to those years of adulthood. Even though, time and time from now, you will be an adult, and it doesn't mean summer's youthful joy was to die along with it.

Glitsygrl.