Summer, please give me... Summer is the heat melting on your skin, the yearning, praying for rainy days; the sound of laughter resonating within households; the school trips with your friends; and the time to escape from the busy urban city to return to your loving countryside. In the bloom of youth, Summer is the season of departing from our schools, our loved ones whose faces and names we have forgotten, and the season of fleeting long-gone memories. Summer gently fades away the moment we’re startled to realize that we don’t have summer anymore when we grow up, saying our last goodbyes to our youth. To others, Summer is no different from the rest of the year, still struggling with our circumstances, wishing for a different life, longing for things we have never had before every day and night, and having no choices other than watching others having fun in those rays of sunshine*. Our hands reach out, trying to grasp and take what we have lost because of the summer. Summer is that emptiness, that sense of longing, and those goodbyes we’re tempted to steal back and keep to ourselves.
*this is what I saw on the streets when I returned to Vietnam: the beggars, be it children, teenagers, adults, or the old. My time in America makes me feel so comfortable that I, for a moment, forget these heart-wreaking daily scenes in my home country.

