Summer was ending.
A shiver ran down my spine. Not because it was cold out, not yet. Although the six o'clock sun rays didn't seem as hot as they were a week ago, it was still comfortably warm out. But then, maybe that was because I was still hot from a hard soccer practice.
Soccer was a sure sign that summer would be finished soon. It stars three weeks before school begins every year. Most people are more active over the summer than the rest of the year. All the moving around, being outside, enjoying the freedom of no school. But not me, not until soccer starts.
I guess I regret that. I get more out of the last three weeks of summer than I do from the other six put together. I don't realize how precious my summer is until it's nearly gone.
As I stopped to pull my shoes on- I almost never wear them to walk home from school- I glanced at the bank's message board. One of the big, kind of tacky ones with slide-in letters to spell out words of wisdom, or in this case, to say: "SCHOOL OPENS MON. SEPT. 12. DRIVE SAFELY." Wow, I thought. It really has taken a while for summer's ending to sink in. School starts this Monday...
The first day of school means summer has ended. It means back to work, back to responsibility. Not that those things are bad, not really, anyway. Just- different.
I walked under the shadow of a tree, and began to feel the cool weather of autumn approaching. And, for the first time, I realized I could see it as well: the tree's leaves were turning golden-brown and red. Not much yet, only the edges of the leaves were beginning to dry and crumble. But in two or three weeks, the trees will look like they're on fire. And then they'll look dead.
Of course I know that the trees won't die. But they'll look it, without their leaves. They'll look lonely, too. Bare branches have always looked like skeletal hands, reaching out for someone to help them, until winter's snow blankets them in white. At least, that's how they've always looked to me.
Now I was at the door to my house. With my hand on the knob, I paused to look, to think, to take in everything. Yes, I realized. This is what summer is.
As I closed the door after me, I stole a final glance at the summer outside, and smiled.
After all, summer was ending. And that meant something new was beginning.