i wanted to be a rockstar

one of my most favorite things about summer
is the desire to make and do that just seems to be everywhere.
everyone seems to cook more often,
people are more eager to get outside and run around,
and i feel like creating my own everything:
clothes, bracelets, barbecues, beauty products... everything!
the weather makes me much more productive.

this creativeness certainly has to be tied to the added mood-boost we get during summer,
and i also think it's a part of the inner-child in us.
when we're younger,
we create daily.
we color in coloring books, we make friendship bracelets, we learn to sew and to take pictures,
we want to make our own lunches and create our own recipes.
now that we're older, it's labeled as DIY this and make-your-own that
and the internet is full of tutorials
and how-to-do-this-thing-you-did-a-thousand-times-when-you-were-ten.
plus, when we were younger we wanted to brag about it for entirely different reasons. 
i'm pretty sure our inner-children would be cross with us
for forgetting about all that work we put into learning how to make a boondoggle.
how dare we lose that knowledge?!

this weekend it got so hot outside
that the sprinkler was put underneath the trampoline
and my sisters and i played on it for nearly three hours.
we bathed our dogs outside,
we made our own popsicles,
we hung out in just our bathing suits for an entire sunday,
we made plans to make a music video,
and we invented this killer lemonade cake recipe.

all of the experiences in life,
all of the knowledge we gain and things we love are just compounded as days go by.
so this "inner child" we speak of
is really just you.
why abandon an entire portion of your life for another?
i've struggled with the modern concept of "growing up" for years now,
as i really am not in favor of leaving things behind.
don't leave twelve years of your life in hindsight,
because for twelve years you were totally awesome and talented and wanted to be a rockstar.

i completely believe in staying true to who you are,
so why not count those awesome formative years?
you can still pretend to be gypsies and talk in fake accents and be a successful, contributing human being.
don't simply cast off the cool parts about childhood for practicalities and responsibilities.
life can be a wonderful cocktail of the uninhibited desires and talents of childhood
mixed with the maturity, knowledge, and experience you've gained along the way.

so the next time you're at the pool this summer,
play marco polo or something.
because i gotta tell ya,
being wild and free made me feel like i really was a rockstar.

xo.