I wish I could properly excuse this absense with maybe some tropical adventure or a tornado cutting down internet connection, but really I've been just floating my way through summer break as swiftly as possible and words haven't really been interested in joining.
After classes finished, I turned the office into my personal habitat and emerged in piles of books and 3 years worth of notes and battled my way through finals. I don't do studying very well, but 700 years worth of History and 8 mandatory readings to throughly revise were a whole new level. The grades, however, didn't give away the struggle and the boredom of those few weeks locked away - I did pretty well (this might be an understatement). I don't see myself as someone who casually does "pretty well" in finals, but I did. I also filled my college application, with a final grade of 19/20 which I also never foreseen. It was probably the bitterest moment of summer break so far.
I've been trying to be excited about uni. I've been wondering about waking up in Lisbon and making new friends, starting a new life on my own terms and embarking on the so called "college life". Mostly, I've been repeating to myself that whatever happens happens. Trust the universe, I say. I want to believe things will work out the way they are meant to, I'm trying to accept life doesn't always go as we planned, let alone at 17. But in the back of my mind I can't let go of the plans I'd made for my gap year. I still think about the people who'll go to Costa Rica even if I don't and how I'll never get to know them. I can't deal with thought of a younger me absolutely broken by the fact that now-me is letting this go without a fight, settling for life instead of fighting for my dreams like I used to brag about. I see such plans beginning to crack and shatter, piece by piece, and I can't forgive myself for not standing up for them, even if the right thing to is to go to college.
The thing is - the future is now. Now is the time I hold on to my dreams and the things I have planned for myself and I start shaping the person I truly want to be. I just didn't know it'd be as dauting as settling down for the comfort of meeting other's expectations.