Reality

 "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination" -John Lennon

This week, reality slapped. Orientation begins this week. Classes begin in two weeks. The reality is that school is starting back up again, something that felt impossibly far way back in March when the pandemic hit. I suppose a part of me, in March, believed we would never reach this point. But somehow time just flew by, as I usually find out, and the day is creeping in closer than before. 

Reality slapped because this past week, I realized my summer is pretty much over. The long-anticipated summer before I apply to college is almost over. The summer where I would spend my days writing essays. A no-messing-around summer. In May, I feared for the subsequent three months before school and a large part of this comes from the anxiety that has built up over the years around summer 2020. I'm on the other side now. I made it through this summer and I accomplished what I had so fearfully accrued. 

Reality does leave a lot of room to the imagination. For me, I'm often entranced by the what if's. What if I procrastinated so much and didn't start my essays at all this summer? What if school never started again? What if life got in the way and I fell behind on college apps? The reality is that time will draw everything to a close. Imagination just scares us by making this stretch of time seem farther, larger, and more intimidating than it really is. Hence, to John Lennon's point.