Days filled with carefree street football and basketball being played in the neighborhood evolved into young flirtatious teens flirting with one another, kissing the older girls on the cheeks, exploring one another’s innocents for the first time, and sharing smiles with the opposite sex who are no longer thought to have “cooties” quickly evolve into trips into the night, exploring the metropolitan area filled with young men and women who with impeccant eyes smiled at the presence of new youth to interact with to the nights filled with drinking in
the backseat, smoking unparticular cigarettes and exploring the streets under the influence of marijuana and liquor. That was teen years for most. But for some, there was also an explosion of creativity born from the depravity. Those youth could be found under all of the same influences as their peers, maybe even not, but these would be the teens sitting underneath the stars with their pen and pad staring up at the moon with bemused, glazed pupils. The teens missed while staring at the empty canvas with nothing but the inspiration of summer in their vision, ready and fully prepared to create. But what is it about the summer that inspires creativity in the imaginative individuals?
I am not the only artistic individual who has noticed that with the change of the seasons, summer thoughts seem to be peaked at an all-time high when it comes to the creative process. As a fellow author and one of my former classmates, Scott Erland puts it, “It has to do with how much life seems to open up during the summer. Everything is alive and active. The whole seems to open up and move organically. It’s as if you can feel the world breathing….summer makes life brighter and more illuminated,” which is surprisingly true, in my humble opinion. If you are student, you tend to have a much larger appreciation for summer because that means one word for you. Vacation.
In this vacation away from the responsibilities of schoolwork and the stress of the social scene of college and high school alike, a lot of time seems to open up to relax and ponder in one’s own thoughts. Whether on the side of the pool or under the quiet shade of a palm tree with nose filled with the aroma of barbecuing pork chops in the air, thoughts seem to explode on the pad as though life leaves from the stem of the pen and out of the tip of the pen. Like writing life with the tip of your finger. Or watching inspiration burst into the indigos and violets and the setting sun onto a personal canvas. Summer just offers everything in a brighter light. Nothing seems wrong during the summer months, almost as if back in childhood when everything was an adventure, much like poet and author Taniece Michelle described.