Growing up means that summers start to become extensions of school. SAT classes, the next level of math, summer homework, maybe even remedial courses at school itself- after the ninth or tenth grade, summer break tends to be not as much of a break as it used to be.

I remember that when I was a kid, my biggest worry used to be the boredom that came with summer. My parents would sign me up for summer camps for a few weeks here and there (science camp rules!), but when I wasn’t at one of those camps, I would just be spending time at home. I’ve always been the type of person that needs to be consistently doing something, and back then, I didn’t quite know how to really entertain myself.

One day, probably when I was eight or nine years old, my mom told me to go make a list of things that I wanted to do over the summer. I actually managed to find that list in one of my ancient notebooks that’s been gathering dust on my shelf; to give you an idea of what it looked like, some items (taken directly from this list) were “write a poem about summer,” “send mail (on paper),” and “make a journal for plant growth.” Let’s hear it for Fetus Arya, everyone.

I’m not really affected heavily by Boredom Syndrome anymore; on the contrary, I tend to worry that I have too much to get done and not enough time to do it.

For a while, I was in complete disbelief that school had ended at all. The first day of summer, I remember coming home and watching High School Musical 2… and then feeling guilty because I wasn’t doing homework… but then remembering I DIDN’T HAVE HOMEWORK!… this situation repeated itself a multitude of times throughout the next week (with various movies/TV shows).

This summer for me, personally, isn’t very school oriented- I’ve decided that I’m going to focus on and get ahead in music. My family and I are traveling to India at the end of the summer because I have the opportunity of performing with my music school in multitude of shows (three in India, one here in the Bay Area!). However, even though I’m not doing actual schoolwork, rehearsing and preparations seem never-ending.

It’s alright though, because the thing is, I really want to do music. I want to take it to the next level, not even because I’m looking into it as a profession, but because I love it. I love learning new things and this is a great way for me to do that and push myself to pick up small details and nuances quicker. I’m never bored with music.

So that’s the story of my summer evolution.

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