The red hot rays of the fiery ball of gas in the sky beat down on me, burning holes through my head as I sulkily stood on the patio of what seemed to be an old cabin in the wood, not fully anticipating just how amazing this summer would turn out to be. To be fair, usually when you’re dragged out of your house on a Friday night to go on an excruciatingly and agonizingly long two hour field trip with your family in an old trailer, of which, smells like old lady and month old gym socks with nothing on you to eat other than some old, hot, mushy processed cheese, to spend your summer in the middle of nowhere, you kinda expect your summer to be horrible.

Shortly after school had ended, during the beginning of summer, I had been wasting my time sitting in bed eating and watching Netflix. Even though I had been fairly unproductive, it was what I was looking forward to for the past nine torturous months that I was stuck in stuck school, but of  course, something had to go wrong.
 

“Do we really have to go Saugatuck this year? I mean, we always do the same thing when we visit, so what’s the point?” I stated feeling downhearted after hearing what we were going to do this summer.

“Do you really not want to go?” My dad said raising an eyebrow at me, turning away from the T.V show he was watching.
 

“Aye. See, now you’re starting to get it.” I said smiling at him, shooting him a thumbs up before walking away and down the hallway retreating back to my room feeling accomplished. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have said that a slight look of disappointment and hurt had washed over his face seconds after I made that comment. Though that could have just been my conscience trying to guilt me into trying to take back what I said. Even though a small part of me wanted to run back down the hallway and tell him I was joking because I knew how he felt about this trip, I just couldn’t bring myself to. It’s not a surprise to me that he wanted to go, we visit every year, it’s practically a tradition by now, but I was just so caught up in not wanting to go that I didn’t take the time to acknowledge the fact that it was a really important trip to him.

“Ehh, it’s probably fine” I said to myself, only half sure about my decision to keep this feeling to myself.
One day, my dad came up with the genius idea of traveling two hours to spend months in an old, boring, cracked up cabin in the middle of nowhere. Though the trip to the cabin wasn’t so pleasant, considering the fact that I was squished in a minivan with six other people and nothing to eat but greasy fast food and while I was pretty sure I felt what it’s like to have heartburn several times, the scenery was actually quite nice.
 

Throughout the summer, though I tried to spend most of it indoors away from society, my parents spent most their time planning activities and as my dad would love to say “fun little journeys” for the entire family to go on, such as boating, horseback riding, festivals and barbecues. Though reluctant to do anything at first I slowly started joining on the activities and I found that life’s more fun when you get involved and not let not pass you by. By the end of the summer any thoughts of not wanting to come back to the cabin had completely left my mind, and I was looking forward to being able to spend another summer in a cabin.