what I did, what I learned, what I felt
Days before summer began, I sat in a Switchyards club room inspired, hopeful, and confident that this could be the summer of my dreams.
After listening to a riveting LifeKit episode, I drafted up what I thought would be a dreamy summer 2026. With music playing and a dry erase marker in hand, I mapped out the experiences I wanted to have and the way I wanted to feel. I combed through my commitments, goals, and trips thoroughly.
“I can’t guarantee any of this will work out,” I thought, “but certainly this is a good start.”
And it was! Most of what I set out to do, I did! It was a brilliant summer, dear reader, truly. Full of joy, community, nature, and victory.
2026 has challenged me in ways I’ve truly never experienced before and this summer was certainly no exception. There was also clarity that cost me, shifts in perspectives that brought with them growing pains, and lessons that revealed parts of myself and the world around me that I hadn’t really taken a close look at before.
I was learning, hurting, and healing all the while trying to have the time of my life. And I can say confidently today, I am better off for it.
If my summer was nothing else, it was balanced. Even. Well-paced, just as I hoped. I held back nothing. I did my best and am grateful to God for the summer I had. Here’s some thoughts about it.
This summer, I bought a car. After years of driving in my beloved, though definitively unsafe college car, Lil Red, I finally decided to buy a more reliable vehicle. I was scared, I’ll admit it. But doing it scared is still brave. It took a shaky, scary drive to Costco for me to finally realize the level of danger my fear of buying a car was actually putting me in. For too long, I was accepting the risk of breaking down on the side of the road (something I have plenty of experience with LOL) over the reality of having another bill (something I have less experience with). But I took the risk, I bought the car, and am now able to get to and from my destinations safely. It was on my bingo card, but I didn’t really think I’d do it until it was already happening.
After being rejected from a community orchestra last summer, I spent pretty much the entire year since developing as a violinist. I practiced for hours and hours, continued studying under a private teacher, learned a bunch of new songs, attended a music intensive, joined a less intense community orchestra, and performed chamber music publicly for the first time ever. This summer, specifically, I performed my first ever solo! Well, on the very last day of summer, as my last victory of the season, I was officially accepted into the same orchestra I was rejected from last year. I love being a musician, as I’ll discuss more in a separate piece soon, and am grateful for the time and resources to improve and the audacity to keep putting myself out there!
I went to Helsinki for a week and it literally rewired my brain. Unplugging from technology (literally didn’t open my computer all week), disconnecting from any sense of deadlines or obligations, and just allowing my brain some genuine reprieve from the busyness of my daily life, I felt so present, so calm, and so, so happy. I truly believe I came back a different woman lol. I’ll write more on this trip and its impact on the way I want to live going forward, but put simply, it was the best trip I’ve taken all year. From kayaking, to the 2 amazing sauna visits (complete with cold plunges into the Baltic Sea), to BIG NOODLEEEEEE to the gorgeous winter garden to time spent seeing Helsinki through Lucas’ eyes and spending time in his presence, I truly had such an amazing time and it was genuinely such a perfect way to end the season.
Okay, walk with me here.
Our social networks – let me be specific – your friendship networks, are a lot like a solar system. If you’re the sun, you have some planets that are closer to you and some planets are that are further away from you, but they’re still in your orbit. You have close friends who you talk to often and you have friends who you don’t talk to often, but they are still definitively in your orbit. You also have acquaintances, like your neighbor that you run into, folks at the gym you train at, or the barista at your favorite coffee shop.
The biggest lesson in this big galactic analogy is that along with your close friends (think Mercury), distant friends (hey, Pluto!), acquaintances (a star, perhaps), you also have meteors. Meteors are people that get really close to you for a time and then fly by without a trace in the sky.
This summer, I learned the danger of mistaking meteors for planets.
If you think someone’s a close friend and then they just disappear out of your life. It hurts. It’s painful. Believe you me, I’ve been there. But I learned that when people reveal what they are in your social solar system, don’t fight it.
My biggest learning from my visit to Finland was that I can control how much stress I’m under. I was feeling so overwhelmed and anxious before I left for Helsinki not at all due to any actual responsibilities like my job or family. It was almost entirely because of things I chose to do. I was struggling under the weight of things I had complete agency to let go. I was hesitant to let it go because I really wanted it all.
But the lesson here is that sometimes you have to make tough choices to keep your sanity lol. I withdrew from an amazing (and paid) writing opportunity because with everything I had going on, I just could not handle that weight. And I learned that it didn’t make me weak or a punk to let something go. But rather that saying no to the things you really want for the sake of protecting yourself against burnout really is the harder, but smarter thing to do.
I discovered soooooooo much in the last few months about my thoughts on romance. Not because anything in particular happened, but simply because I’m paying closer attention to long-seated ideas and questioning perspectives I never really thought to investigate. For example, when I stopped and really thought about why I dated the men I’ve dated in my life, I realized that I was only attracted to them because they first exhibited attraction to me! Giant light bulb moment because then it pressed to me consider, what kind of man would I be attracted to if the only requirement wasn’t just being interested in me? What would I actually want in a partner if I finally picked the bar up off the floor? And it dawned upon me that I had never seriously thought about it before because, transparently, I really had been dating whoever came my way. That is, of course, no longer how I’m dating (glorayyyy) but it’s just one of many light bulb moments I’ve been having lately around romance. Perhaps I’ll write a piece about that as well!
With rising gas prices, I was growing tired of driving to Buckhead three times a week for my Lagree class. Inspired by the Hyrox debut of my line sisters Jada and Halle, I also wanted to return to more functional strength training, mostly to achieve my goal of one pull up by my birthday.
Upon my return from Europe at the end of May, I joined a local CrossFit gym and began a new 3 day/week routine with some of the nicest but craziest people I’ve ever met. CrossFit, though seemingly scary, turned out to be an exceptional addition to my fitness routine and to my life. I am without a doubt stronger than I’ve ever been. My VO2 max is increasing, my form is improving, my muscles are toning, my strength is kinda crazy (not me bench pressing 100lbs on my first attempt chile), and my booty is getting bigger.
What I appreciate about my fitness journey and my violin journey is that in a world of outsourcing learning and critical thinking to artificial intelligence, these are two parts of my where if I want to get better, I have to work for it. I’m not getting stronger if I don’t stay consistent. I’m not getting faster if I don’t run. I love it because there is no easy way out. It’s just really hard work and it makes me feel really good to challenge myself week after week.
This summer, I’ve been wearing outfits that make me feel good! To the fashionistas in the room, that may sound perfectly normal to you, but my personal style is something I’ve been working on for a few years now and finally this summer I think things are clicking in really exciting ways. I learned that I look really good in blue and green, I got some cowboy boots that I’m obsessed with, and I unexpectedly revived an interest in handbags. I feel good in the clothes I wear, they fit me really well, and that’s been making me happy all summer.
Chile, I was outside all summer. I kayaked with my cousins. Me and Réal had a concert series (the best show being Jill Scott live at the Fox Theatre; I cried, it was so goooood). Kept up with the monthly hikes, of course (s/o Sidney for our spontaneous visit to Clouldland Canyon!) I went on a walk with one of my neighbors and we yappeddddd and it was great. Me, Deanna, and Ameerah had plenty of delightful #gyultime. Took a day trip to DC and reunited with the IRS besties. Saw a bunch of professional sports (and a middle school softball game). Like yeah, I may have been tired by the end of it, but baby I had a timeeeee, okay? Ate good ALL summer. Truly a genuine foodie at this point.
But, in case you haven’t noticed, fall is here now. Summer has indeed ended, a new season is upon us and I am excited for it. I have hope that God is going to do great things in my life in the next season and I’m sure I’ll have great victories as well as losses. Lots of silly joys and some hard lessons. I’m confident, though, that all will be well regardless of what comes my way.
Cheers to reflection and the first real piece I’ve written in forever.
Thalia, 27, is doing her best everyday, y'all.
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