The summer is inviting, little to no worries pester me. Days are long but filled with friends, food and freedom. Country music blasts from every radio, while girls lay tanning outside the pool and there is horseplay from the guys in the pool.

Slowly, the chill of fall creeps up on the euphoric summer teenagers. More layers of clothes are added on, and stress is too. What classes do they need to pass to graduate? How many days of school are left? When is the next break? The warm days are fleeting, and turning into earlier and earlier nights.

Winter comes and the once happy teenagers are miserable. Seven different finals bombard them and their lives are filled with haste. Haste for friends and family, but most importantly school. The pressure buries them, their smiles are never seen. The Christmas season is supposed to be the “most wonderful time of the year” but do any of the students seem happy?

After winter stretches out for four months too long, a peak of spring arrives. The April showers ensue, rain washes away any trace of the gray winter. Slowly flowers begin to sprout, just like the students getting ready for summer. Daylight lasts just a little bit longer but it is still better than the darkness- winter.

Finally summer, a dear friend of the teenagers, arrives. Newer, better friendships are formed. They continue to spend days at the pool, with greasy food and soda cups in their hands. The worries from months ago seem to have dissipated, and laughter replaces it. Until, of course, the cycle continues.