Summer? What? When?

It's mid-August already. Wow. Time does fly! The funny thing? It doesn't feel that much like summer to me. I know I have always had high expectations of summer, but I learned that summer never turns out the way I want it to. But somehow, I still have the desire to live for summer, to make my summer memorable...
I haven't done much, to be honest. In my head, I had it all planned out. I was going to go jogging in the mornings, go volunteer until the afternoon, and then hang out with friends. During most of my evenings I would do some college prep or SAT prep. On some evenings I would even write some personal stories. On rare evenings I would go to a friend's birthday dinner, watch movies at a park, or see fireworks at Coney Island. I would also continue with my 365 photography project, except I would not limit it to only self portraits. Yes, this was how my summer was supposed to go.
The only thing that was constant throughout my summer was photography, volunteer, and hanging out. I made no efforts to exercise or prepare for my hectic senior year. Why must I be so lazy? Is laziness even the problem? How about motivation and passion? Where do those virtues come into play?
I can't go back and fix things now but I must make up for this!

• Even if I don't run in the mornings I must do cardio at home.
• Do half an hour of SAT prep every night. That is NOT a difficult task.
• Do half an hour of college stuff every night. That is not difficult either.
• Use weekends (especially Sundays) to work on college essays and personal pieces.

And as for the hanging out at night? I know it's a privilege for me to even hang out at night, so I'll try my hardest to appreciate my opportunities. Even if I get to hang out one night a week, I will be completely satisfied.
Some photos from the past few weeks:


Dinner with the cousins at St. Marks.


Freedom Tunnel for the second time!


So tired after walking the entire tunnel D=


Coney Island with Stephanie!


Family portrait at the Dragonboat Festival. (It's a summer tradition, haha. I'm talking about the annual family photo, not the festival--which was boring.)

• Dinner with the cousins was nice (even though the food wasn't fabulous). I felt hurt that Linda & Connie didn't want to stay longer, like Aimee & I did. They went home; Aimee & I loitered in Starbucks.
• Freedom was surreal. We almost got caught by the cops when we tried to enter the tunnel. We were talking along the highway when a cop stopped us and told us to go the other way. We looked like a bunch of good Asian kids, so I assume he believed our excuse about trying to find our friend along the river. Haha. The rest is history. We walked through the equivalent of over 50 blocks of train tracks. Getting out was actually harder than getting in because the 72nd st entrance had people EVERYWHERE! I mean, it was Riverside Park. Nevertheless, we succeeded. Pat on the back for me!
• Spending time with Steph always makes me happy. I'm a bit sad that we don't hang out as much as we did freshman year (we were always together!) but it's understandable that we branched off our own ways as the high school years went on. I think she'll be one of the only people from high school that I'll keep in touch with through college & beyond.
• Oh, family days. They're never truly successful. The Dragonboat Festival was boring. Honestly. I was going to watch DCH race (the team that Monica, Man Na & the two Alans are on) but boredom made me leave earlier. We went to Joe's Shanghai for lunch and oh my, I can tell you that those soup dumplings are magical. I've heard people talk about this restaurant and never got what the hype was all about until I tried those dumplings. Yum.

I feel like a lot more happened this summer but I guess I don't remember those days that well because I didn't take pictures. See why photography is so important to me? I forget things so easily. I need pictures as proof of not only the life I lived, but my existence.