My whole life, I have watched movies. I would consider one of my hobbies is just staying home to watch movies. The types of movies that I would watch was (and still is) chick flicks. In 2005, one of my favorite movies came out: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. For the people that have never watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, it’s basically about four friends who are going to spend their summer vacation separate from each other for the first time. Lena is spending the summer in Greece with her grandparents, Tibby is staying at home, Bridget is going to soccer camp in Mexico, and Carmen is visiting her father in South Carolina. However, before heading different ways, they find a pair of jeans that fit them all perfectly, and they send the pants to one another throughout the summer to stay connected. My focus is going to be on Lena’s story. Lena is going to visit her grandparents in Greece. She starts her summer to herself by exploring and hanging out with her family even though her greek isn’t that great. Through the unexpected intervention of the Pants, Lena meets a local Greek boy named Kostas Dounas. They start developing feelings for each other. However, they can not be together because their families hate each other. With a rocky start in their relationship, they found a middle ground to spend the rest of the summer together.This past summer when I graduated from high school, my parents bought my sister and me tickets to Greece. However, my sister could not make the trip, so I had a round trip ticket by myself. Growing up, I would travel almost every summer to Greece because of dad’s family is from there. It was nice just hanging out with family and friends and being enriched by experiencing another culture. However, there was always a little part of me that I couldn’t wait to get older so I could be Lena.I thought that my time had finally came the summer of 2016 because I was an “adult.” I was old enough to experience the new world of flirting, dates, and unexpected love.
So I thought.
At first, I was scared to go do things by myself, so I would hang out with my family a lot. We would go to the sea everyday at 4pm, nap in the afternoon, and go out to cafes at night. After some time, I knew it was time to venture off myself. My aunt lives in a town where many tourists visit, so I would walk into the center of town to watch the sunset. I would take pictures and write in my diary. I decided that writing made me look smarter, but I also just wanted to keep track of my six week adventure. I would then get a table at a cafe right on the sea and sit there for hours. I would write and drink coffee. I also started going to the beach earlier by myself. I would bring a book to read and listen to music. I felt like I gave myself every possibility to have that epic summer love, but movies make everything seems so much simpler.
Sometimes I ask myself: What did I want from the summer in Greece? Honestly, I just wanted to be experienced love like in the movies. I just wanted my fantasy to become my reality. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants made me have high expectations of how my summer should have played out. Even though I didn’t have my epic summer love story, I think I am amazing six weeks of just finding myself. Who can say they spent a whole summer in Greece alone?
Image Credit: Katie Zervas, 1