Summer break is a unique time for all college women, where we have the chance to finally recharge, explore, and even find the self-love we need for ourselves. But how often do we capture the essence of these three or four months, beyond swiping on tiktok or posting your next summer dump of what you have done the last few days?
This summer, consider taking more self-love time and grab a piece of paper (or your notes app) and truly find ways to write about your experiences so that once time starts to tick faster, you can look back on the summer of 2025: by writing “Dear Future Me” entries or crafting poems that are full of self appreciation and full of what will be nostalgic.
This is not meant to be about maintaining your daily water intake or cataloging your mood. Instead, this should be an open invitation to bottle up what you are thinking and experiencing right now (whether that be your opinions on the state of the world, aspirations in college, accomplishments, or even your uncertainties). And fully let them take over the page. When you write one, flip the page and allow each entry to simmer into the page.
Because Memory is a lair and so are instagram stories
Close your eyes and imagine that in a few months from now, you open up a page to reread a Dear Future Me Entry about a summer experience that you completely forgot about. An entire letter that was penned by your past self.
Engaging in this unique reflection practice offers a lot of benefits that can be tailored for college women on the journey to simply remembering good memories from the summer:
- Perserving — While photos may offer just a cap shot of something you experienced, by writing, you can delve into all five senses to enhance your summer. By doing this, you won’t just record what you did, but teleport yourself back to what was occurring and what stuck with you.
- Personal Resilience — After allowing your entries to simmer into the page, opening them up in the Fall, you will gain an interesting perspective of the different person you were and how different you might have been thinking. This practice highlights concrete evidence in your development, which will hopefully evolve into a bittersweet time capsule to combat imposter syndrome to even some self-doubt.
- Accepting The Hardest Kind Of Love (Your Own) — The most important act towards loving yourself is self-affirmation. Meaning that by focusing on all the aspects you love in your current self and writing about them, it will foster a deep sense of self-worth. It won’t happen overnight, but building a routine around this will help you write about your summer will validate your experiences without any other types of opinions.
- Light While In The Dark Tunnel — Picture you are back in school, where you are having a bad week, to wind down, you open your summer journal to find a Dear Future Me entry reminding you of some of your best summer memories that brought nothing but happiness or the self love journey you ventured through. Both bring a feeling of comfort and clarity to the present, simply by using a good memory.
From Mildly Interesting to “Should I Sell The Movie Rights?”
Now, you are probably wondering, how can you ensure that your very own “Dear Future Me” entries or summer poems are not only depicting the correct story but captivating everything all at once? Fortunately, our brains can use the five senses to engrave most memories, meaning that by writing down these senses, your summer will be easily remembered.
Here are some good writing tips for each sense:
- Through Your Sunglasses Lenses — Sight can be distracting from our other senses, but this is what we usually write about. However, the more detailed your sights are written about the more you can trace back to the time you saw a beautiful sunset in Hawai’i or the sight of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Try visualizing the place or thing you want to write about. Let it HIT you before you even attempt to write.
- Sounds That Sang About Your Summer — From the sound of someone spraying sunscreen or the coastal breeze humming in your ear, the sounds of summer are typically love stories with sad endings (aka when fall begins to start). Sound is unique to each person, and when it is written, you might be surprised by how your brain might ponder an atmosphere or something small you heard that was important. If it helps, I have learned that when I voice memo something that I want to write about (for school or my internship), it comes in clutch, understanding what I saw or experienced.
- Smelling Your Summer Breeze — Taking inspiration from the 1975 song “Summer Breeze” by Seals and Crofts, your summer breeze is like your nose stealing the sunlight from the sunflowers. A very faint warmth that kind of drifts into the wind. This smell lingers into the golden hours, carrying the waves crashing in the distant sea. Each breath capsizing your summer.
- The Tastes of Summer — The very essence of summer’s taste is biting into a juicy watermelon that bursts with sweetness, where every moment has captured each drip. The sweet watery taste lingers with a hint of salt from the air. Each bite feels like a symphony of pool days, freedom, and main character vibes.
- All The Feels, All Summer Long — Sun-kissed skin and the grainy sandy beach beneath your feet.
Dear Future Me, this summer was not only a break, but it will be surreal to read entries at a later time and to be shocked that you were in that state of mind at one point. However, it’s crucial to remember that this small act of self-discovery is so crucial for personal growth, especially at this vulnerable age of the early 20s.
Interested in more summer writing tips or getting into journaling? Check out KENDALL FOLEY ‘s article!