I once believed that I was a person that preferred the winter season over any other. For one, winter allowed me to wear my long pants, stylish boots, and oversized jackets without any acknowledgement of my self-consciousness. There was snow, which meant less school. And there was also a lack of vicious mosquitoes that liked to linger around my front door. The world was stagnant and sluggish. The days were short and the nights were long. Despite the almost depressing atmosphere, I thought I had found a home in Winter.

But as spring approached and I was able to taste the faintest bit of summer in the air, I remembered that summer is my friend. I remembered the gentle kiss of the breeze as it lulled me to sleep, unlike the sharp whip of the winter breeze. During each bridge between the chaotic world of school and responsibilities, I found a calm like no other.

My friend Summer has accompanied me in some of my greatest memories. She was there on that warm day as I rested on the couch in between the two open windows, my mother cooking herself away in the kitchen. The sporadic clanging and banging from the kitchen followed by horns and the screeching of tires outside the window was a white noise in the farthest corners of my mind, the books I was reading controlling much of it. This memory has remained by my side, after many years, because summer was with me. She was with me in the scent of fried plantain, fish, okra stew, and banku. In the hot, sticky air that hung in the room like a heavy blanket and breathed life into every nook and cranny. She filled me with her warmth as she listened to me reading my favorite stories. She cried when I cried, laughed when I laughed, and dreamed as I dreamed.

Summer is forgiving. Summer relieves my pressures and allows me to find time to be myself. To dig up my soul from the hole that it had been residing in for months. Instead of nights spent anxiously reviewing all of the things I needed do get done, I listened to the sounds of nature. I listened to the continuous blowing of the breeze and to the chirping of crickets.

My mind was at peace.