We’ve all fantasized about the perfect summer fling. Many long days in high school were consumed by daydreaming images of long drives, concerts and drinking margaritas on the beach. Everyone wishes they had the chance for a whirlwind romance like Noah and Allie’s, but what happens when summer ends and your Noah doesn’t write you 365 letters?
The summer of 2018 is a summer I will always remember. The last full summer I will probably ever spend in my small New England town was filled with day trips into the city, laying on various local beaches, plenty of last minute pool parties and even a few good concerts. As if all of that wasn’t enough, I had the perfect boy by my side through it all.
He was a tall, smart, handsome and slightly awkward boy who had just moved to Boston the summer before he left for his freshman year of college. When he came back from his first year at school he had none of his own friends and didn’t even know how to pronounce most of our Massachusetts town names. That changed when he met me.
From June to August every spare minute I had was spent with him. If I wasn’t working or in a summer class I was riding shotgun in his car exploring the place that had been my home for nearly 20 years, but had never truly seen until this summer. Together we watched sunsets over coastal towns, found little hole-in-the-wall coffee shops, drove hours to see concerts, held hands through art museums and ate cider donuts at the farm I grew up picking apples at. With every adventure I saw him fall in love with his new home, and it made me fall in love with my forever home all over again.
With every day we spent together we fell for one another, but the relationship we built wasn’t all picture perfect. We constantly disagreed over what would happen when summer ended. Neither of us were in a place in our lives where a long distance relationship would work, but I was willing to try it and he wasn’t. In the end we fought until the day we both moved to school and things didn’t end well. We had promised to stay friends and to visit, but it turns out that wasn’t in the cards either.
My summer fling was nothing like what I expected it to be. What I thought would be a carefree summer adventure turned into a small heartbreak and a little regret. I don’t, nor will I ever, regret meeting Andrew or spending my summer showing him all the reasons to love where we live, but I will regret falling for someone I knew would never be able to give me what I ultimately decided I wanted… even though I didn’t know I wanted it at first.
I will always remember the happy memories we made this summer and thank Andrew for being the one to drive all over the North Shore, a shoulder to cry on, a chemistry tutor and the reason I can once again say I love where I’m from. You never know what you’ll get when you start a summer fling, but I think that even when they don’t end the way you want them to, they’re perfect in their own way.