Guest Post: Summer Lovin' by Amy Pospiech the Great!

Here's a guest post by Amy, from 20SB. It's the first time I've ever done a blog swap, but I have to say I'm a fan. We're on opposite sides of the world, it seems, but she's an amazing writer livin' the dream! Hit up her blog for the post I wrote today, as part of the blog swap! 

Hello to the readers of Jaycie's blog: I am taking over for the day! This kind of reminds me of the book that my favorite comedienne Chelsea Handler had her friends write because she was too lazy to write another one. Of course, that one was called "Lies that Chelsea Handler Told Me" and this guest post will be all 100% truth. And I am making Jaycie write a post on my blog because, well, you get kind of sick of hearing your own voice all the time. So it's not really laziness as much as a curiosity about what other people would do with your audience *evil grin*

In honor of the 20-something bloggers summer blog swap, I wanted to talk about one spectacular thing that I did, bought, or experienced this summer. It's so hard to narrow down because really, it's not one spectacular thing this summer. It's not even any spectacular thing, really. it's the fact that, all of this - being 20-something, in the summer - is spectacular.
As 20-something bloggers, I bet most of us are still finding out who we are in the world. We don't necessarily have "industry" expertise, we are still learning about ourselves, finding out own special niche. We're in that middle ground between the crazy teenage years and the settled-down "30s." Yeesh.
Back to the topic at hand. I am a summer baby. Gosh, I turned 24 this summer. My sister turned… 21, no 22!! Which is not really like 21, it's kind of just "the-year-after-i-turned-21" or as my friend Ted put it once, "the anniversary of my 21st birthday." Ho hum. But it's anything but. She's just graduated with a double-major in match and teaching, and this week began her placement at Teach for America in Hartford, Connecticut. I am so proud of her for doing what she's always wanted to do - I remember her as a kid, gathering up all of our stuffed animals as her pupils, and teaching them arithmetic on a little drawing easel in our basement. She had those shimmery metallic star stickers for good work, the colored pens for grading worksheets. After visiting her in her new apartment in Connecticut this past weekend, I see that she has a whole cabinet full of these school supplies! We were walking downtown and stopped in a Barnes & Noble, and she almost couldn't resist buying some SAT prep books. I've never seen someone so excited by the SATs in my life. Well, that's my sister.
The point is, I just wanted to take this moment to sit down and think about this summer and kind of, where I'm at in life. I can't say I've always had as clear a direction as my younger sister. After spending 5 years in college, changing majors many times, working various part-time gigs as well as professional internships, and then going directly to a year of full-time employment, I'm now running my own web design business, establishing a great partner network, and working sort of where I want, when I want. I'm "working" many more hours than I did at my corporate job on a daily and weekly basis, but I'm enjoying life right now and I finally feel like I'm where I'm meant to be.
Thinking about when I was say, 10 years old, how I always wanted to be older… maybe 13, and be a teenager. By the time I got there, I wanted to be Sweet Sixteen, to have my learner's permit albeit the Cinderella laws in New Jersey, and be able to get working papers - imagine that! When I turned 18, I could waitress or become a bartender instead of just being a hostess, went off to college, then of course 19 - well, that's not such a big deal - but then 20 you enter that, "Wow I'm not a teen anymore" and 21, of course, the big drinking age in the US.
So, you know, I was always looking forward to all of these things, and it's kind of interesting because now that there aren't too many "milestones" to rush into the future for, I'm giving myself a chance to kick back and do some fun things in the present. I've been going to tons of concerts and festivals this summer; i learned the name for "fuzzy leg warmers" and where to buy them; I'm living in Philadelphia with two of my girl friends; I'm learning more about photography and yoga; I'm volunteering some Photoshop skills for a documentary about my favorite pinup model of the 1950s, Bettie Page; I've been laying out on the lawn while watching webinars from Google -- I've actually only gone to the beach once this summer.

So now that I'm doing all these things I only dreamed of when I was younger, I wish there was some kind of pause button. I've always looked forward to these years and I know it's bittersweet because it has to end eventually and I'll be looking back on them one day, but for now it's so nice to finally be here. I wish I could bottle this feeling up and keep it with me forever.

In a nutshell, this summer to me has definitely been one of self-discovery and enjoying everything it is to be 20-something in this crazy, chaotic world we live in. Jaycie, thank you for letting me immortalize this feeling on your blog today. I hope it has inspired one of your readers to reflect and bottle up their own sense of euphoria for future use, whatever age they may be :-)