My Mediocre Summer by Olivia Giralt

      Before the end of the 2017-18 school year, our school gave us numerous Saturday school days, as well as an extra week added on to the year. Most students did not attend the remaining days after finals. After all, what was there to be learned after we had taken our finals? These days were only to make up for the ones our wild winter had taken away from us. Unfortunately, I was one of the kids forced by their parents to attend the remaining days of school after finals. My family had to cancel our vacation in Maine in order for my sister and I to take finals. Not the ideal way to end my 2017-2018 school year, but at least I got to play some MarioKart in the cafeteria. 

      The first thing I did this summer was attending my summer arts camp. I took four band classes. I played flute for one class, and for the remaining three I played the bassoon. I'll always have a love for music. I love this summer camp and I have attended it every summer since 4th grade. The teachers at the camp are amazing and hilarious. The bassoon was a new instrument I picked up this summer. I'm thankful that my teachers encouraged me to play it in my summer classes. The instrument does not sound very nice when you don't know how to play it, in fact, it sounds similar to SpongeBob's alarm clock. But thanks to my camp teachers, I was able to really make some improvement. However, they all know I'm certainly going to need a lot more work. 
       Immediately after my camp ended, I left for a trip to Michigan with my family. We first went to Traverse City. I loved Traverse City. It was beautiful. There was so much grassland and the area truly felt peaceful and relaxed. I hope I'll be able to go back again. My family also took a boat to Mackinac Island and stayed there for 4 days. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. There were no cars on the island, so everyone traveled by bike, horse, or foot. Thanks to the horses, the island didn't smell that great and you always had to watch your step. My family biked the entire island twice. It was gorgeous. As much as I liked the trip to Michigan, I couldn't wait to get home and see my friends.
      Unfortunately, I didn't get to see my friends as much as I would have liked. When I was free to make plans, my friends weren't. When my friends were free, I wasn't. Luckily, I got to see friends every once and awhile. Most of the plans I made were towards the end of the summer. The times when I got to see my friends were always super fun, even if they weren't often. I'm lucky to have such awesome and amazing friends.
     Overall, my summer of 2018 was okay. It was nothing spectacular and it wasn't bad either. I got to do a lot of nice things, but I ended up being bored a lot. As summer came to end, I felt relieved to go back to my school routine. Hopefully, my summer of 2019 will be much more exciting. 

This is a bassoon!

Here are three photos I took at Mackinac Island!