I'm already beginning to

get excited like I always do for the first day of school.

I get those butterflies in my stomach that always seem to accompany new binders and picking out what I'm going to wear and eating breakfast, trying to play it cool and not seem as excited as I actually am. This year, I get to move into my new house. Paint my walls. Put everything in order. I can't wait for that autumn-y smell that comes with fall. The leaves outside, slowly layering clothes as it gets a little chillier.

Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

I'm ALSO excited about seeing more of the great United States than I've ever seen this summer. I'm going to Yellowstone, and then to Chicago and Lake Michigan. I'm so incredibly lucky. I hope to be able to write something good about all of this. I feel like Jack Kerouac, going on the road, seeing new things. Feeling the tight expectancy of seeing a new place. I guess even if I'm not doing interesting things abroad, I can be more than content with getting to know my own country a little better. This is when I feel the most patriotic I ever feel: when I get to experience more and more of America, all the different sides, the different temperatures and bars and sidewalks and trails.

And, I'm also excited that a story of mine (I posted it a long time ago, called "Redwoods" or something) is going to be published in Sanctuary, the Honors literary journal for some school somewhere, anyway it's a regional thing.