Do The Last Two Summers Compare?

After processing through Seattle and Portland and my internship and heavy responsibility at the Self-Advocacy conference (I did everything from moderator to T.A. to ambassador to speaking) and my smaller trips (Idaho City, Melba for the 4th of July, Caldwell, and a few internship trips, one to Emmett, one to Kuna, and a couple to Meridian), and do church events (Pride Festival, Vacation Bible School) and working two other jobs and doubles galore (self-direction and Albertson's as well) and also making time to hang out with cool new friends (Kristi and Sarah), get to have conversations with my supervisor and be on a committee and in a board meeting, hang out with old roommates (my friends from the group home), long-time friends (Jenna, Tiffany, Tyler, Kelli, Lindsey, Carly, Bobby, Tom, Zack, Ivy, Corey, and the list goes on), and try a few new sports (dragonboating, quadcycling), go to an exciting baseball game and an exciting soccer game, and do some workout doubles of PiYo and Abs, I did a lot this summer. It was a summer of work and play to the core and while I worked two jobs and an internship and was on a committee, I was able to balance the play. Last summer was almost exclusively work. I did little play beyond exercising as I worked two jobs (three if you count moving) for a good deal of the summer and engaged in a delicate subject called Math, which I managed to get an A in, then went to a conference. I did read a lot both summers as well, but with that being my main form of play in 2012 as well as exercise and with 2013 the play being coffee hangouts both alone and with people and meals out as well as exercise and reading and a long and short vacation as well and conferences and cooking projects as play/work both summers, the answer is a resounding "no you can't compare summers". you see last summer was different if for no other reason than I started over with everything right after winning a gold medal in basketball (my last ever in that sport) and dancing two long session in a day. It was mid-summer school term and I switched living situations upside-down- I dropped my agency and went on the waiver service and in the summer probably spent way more time outside of the home studying and conferencing and exercising than in the home. Everything about self-direction was foreign, the one-on-one attention for a brief time, the investment to do fun extracurricular activities, the almost unlimited transport, the amazing amount of care by people who cared about my well-being, the help with schoolwork, and I was driven to succeed after a month but needed time to work through it, because on top of that, I was the boss of the operation, a private agency manager of sorts. This summer, I had a year of that under my belt and as such was able to make amazing decisions and was able to balance the internship with two jobs, fun, and go on long and short vacations, though the long one had to wait to summer's end. The only things similar is that both summers I read an exorbitant amount of books (30 last summer and close to that this summer, not counting my Math text), and that my cooking and decision-making about budgeting got better and better as the summer went along. The summer of 2012 I did a few things with friends, however most of the items were work. This summer was a step in the direction of being even more independent and a direction for myself and truly balancing work and play to the core. This summer I gained a lot and learned so much that it is unbearable to think that if I didn't do all the things I did, appointments and workshop included, that I would've had the best experience possible. Summer of 2012 I was intensely working and I ended up being exhausted and it showed the first week or two of school when I had trouble with organization, however rallied to get a 3.65 in upper-division classes. With that as history for the fall and with this summer being more independent and slightly less exhausting, the people at Dutch Brothers are right, I'm most likely going to do extremely well this term, especially since I have experience with two professors already. As far the comparisons beyond that, there is none. The play that summer is a full-length audible complete with a full-length audible of work, and last summer, the play was limited to a half-length audible or a bit more and the work was overflowing. And besides, you can't compare the summers, they are different and stand on their own.