“the lazy days of summer” – not in College!

My first summer blog post!

I remember the days when I would look forward to the summer because it would allow me to hangout with friends and not have many responsibilities for almost three whole months! The same, I’m afraid, can not really be said for College – it’s more fun than ever, but a lot of the fun comes from the incredible opportunities you have to expand your horizons during the summer in the forms of traveling, interning at a neat place, or serving others!

Exams came to an end and I’m happy to report that I did very well in all my classes this semester for all that was going on! Sometimes at William and Mary you can feel like you’re majoring in life and extracurriculars that you love and minoring in your studies, but finals really reminds you what the real hierarchy is! We all made it, though, and the second I walked out the door of my last final I ran to my dorm, grabbed my bags, hopped in the car and drove straight to National Airport in DC for a family vacation to Italy with my siblings, parents, and best friend from VA Tech who also drove right from his last final. We stayed in Venice for 4 days and then trained down through Florence to Rome for another four, with a brief stint in Pompeii and Naples. The country is BEAUTIFUL, and if you get the chance to visit or study there through one of our many William and Mary abroad programs I definitely suggest that you do! I’ve been getting emails from all the people in the Florence program this summer and they tell me it’s a dream come true. I also saw “Angels and Demons” last night with some friends from home and it’s cool to think that I was in all of those places just two days ago.

Now that Italy’s finished, though, I return home to a room filled with boxes of my life on the floor. More packing, unpacking, sorting and liquidating until I move back down to the good ole ‘Burg for June and July to intern for the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus doing infrastructure and development and also work with the Administration on special summer projects and strategic initiatives for the upcoming year! All in all I’m excited at the prospect of being back in Williamsburg again, and while William and Mary is normally a pretty laid back place I look forward to its feeling during the summer, with long walks to the cider stands and laying at night in the Sunken Gardens in the utter quiet of an empty campus. Some people stay at William and Mary during the summer to do research and intern or take summer classes, so there are always people around but its a really nice atmosphere to be a part of!

After that’s done I plan on traveling a bit in August to hangout in Wyoming a bit on a ranch with my little brother in my fraternity and then maybe visit some other friends from school at their homes before heading back early for Orientation prep so I can greet the incoming class of 2013!

It’s crazy to think that I’m already a junior at the College; my own orientation seemed like yesterday when I was picking up my younger brother at our high school today. Time flies but we’re all making the most of it – I’ll keep you updated throughout the summer on recent news in the ‘Burg and other interesting anecdotes of my summer life!

Summer time and the living’s good..

Brian