Goodbye Good People of America

Hello Beautiful People! 

I am currently on a plane that is about to take off! Soon (well in about 42ish hours!) I'll be in unloading in Abuja, Nigeria!!! I am soooo psyched!!! 

I'll be in the air for 7hrs, then I'll be making a pit stop in London to freshen up for a couple more hours, then it's 7 more hours on a plane and then I'll be landing. 

While on this trip I will try my very bestest to post about my adventures (maybe about once a week?) but I can't promise because internet in Nigeria is a little more ...scarce.

Ok, bye for now!  Bye cold weather, bye free wifi, by cheese burgers and pizza, good by America! 

Love, 

Summer 

The Loss of a Phenomenal Woman

On May 28th 2014 the world lost a beautiful and phenomenal woman. 

With the strength of her words and the depth of her voice Maya Angelou changed the world. 

I feel as if I have lost a mother; her work spoke to me like no other author had. I read her book "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" in 8th grade. I recited "I Know Why The Bird Caged Sings" (the poem)  and placed the text on the last page of my middle school scrap book. In my freshman year of high school I recited "Still I Rise" for a local celebration of black history. I still know all the words today...

"You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise." 

~ my favorite line from "Still I Rise" 

When I became a self proclaimed activist for the feminist movement, who was there at the door with her words... 

"I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me."

~ From poem "Phenomenal Woman"

Today I am listening to an old interview Maya Angelou had with Terry Gross. Her resonant voice reverberates through me. At the moment I feel sad, but I also feel sense of contentment as I feel energy and love from her even though she is gone.

"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope."

Maya Angelou: A remarkable individual, a phenomenal woman, a spirited writer. She is a light in my heart and a voice in my mind. She will always be remembered.

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day Loves! This weekend has brought beautiful blue skys, perfect weather, the birds, the bees, and flowering trees! Don't you love it!  
 

I've been enjoying the weekend outdoors at Trap Pond: an amazing park for fishing, camping, biking, and  canoeing. I was literally in a little canoe for hours. The area was so beautiful it was unreal! I kept battling between whether I should  help my sister row or whether  I should take pictures. In the end rowing won because my sister snapped at me for making her do all the work  haha!! But lucky for me, before our little fight went down (yes my little sis full-on tried to fight me in the middle of the pond) I had already snapped a substantial amount of gorgeous photos. So, here they are!  

One more thing! As you are enjoying your family time, food and the warm weather fun, do me and your country a favor and take a moment to remember those who died serving in the armed forces, cause that's what Memorial Day is truly about! 

P.S. This time next week I'll be in Nigeria!!!

xoxo - Summer

Wear Sunscreen and Other Tips for Life

I've been thinking about life and how much time we have on this earth and yet how short it can seem. I'm 17 now and for some reason I have it in my head that I must figure it all out right now, as if my life is going to end the second I let go of this notion.  But looking at the bigger picture we have so much time to figure it out and at some point we must accept that we will never figure it out.

For now,  in my young and prime years, I think I'm going to stop trying to move ahead and just enjoy and revel in the current moment. We have all of adult hood to worry, but for now lets just enjoy life  thoroughly :)

Here's a cute but seriously wisdom filled video about life which I heard about in Lupita Nyong'o's interview with People magazine. To sum it up: face your fears, never stop growing, and wear sunscreen!

2 Weeks Until Nigeria – The Best and the Worst

 

Back in March I briefly mentioned a little bit about planning a trip to Nigeria and since then my plans have come very far. I am leaving for Nigeria at the end of this month and I will be there until the middle of July, which is about (let me calculate) a good (long) six weeks!

 

Right now, I’m in the kitchen, with the windows wide open, typing on my laptop and listening to Lauren Hill on Pandora…I should probably be bringing out my suitcases so I can begin packing, but this week I just completed the last of my AP exams and I just feel like doing nothing but reveling in the beautiful spring weather.

 

So yaaaaas, Nigeria! It feels very surreal. I haven’t been to Nigeria since I was three - an experience of which I have no memory of! So basically, I’m going to Nigeria blindly and without any expectations, but I’m very excited because I have finally been given the opportunity to go – something I’ve dreamt of for as long as I can remember.

Even greater than just an opportunity to travel, this trip will serve as my high school senior project for which I will be creating a film. I plan to document all the things I see, do and lean as well as all the people I meet.

 

As this is my senior project, all the effort to make this trip happen rests solely on me (yes they work us hard in school!), including raising the funds to make it happen (part of the senior learning experience).
If you feel inclined to help make this film as great as possible, I have set up a funding raising account where you can sponsor my project by donating as much or as little as you want. If you do, I will be eternally grateful :) and your name will appear in the credits of my film under sponsors! The link bellow will take you to the page where you can support me and learn more.

http://www.gofundme.com/takeme2-Africa

 

 

For those of you that have been listening to the news, you may have noticed that my trip correspond with a time of great difficulty in Nigeria; on April 14th , over 200 school girls were kidnapped by the Boko Haram - an Islamist extremist group, and have still not been returned. My mind can’t even conceive what this  really means because it’s so foreign from anything in have ever experienced, but because these girls are around my age and are from a place I am about to go to,  I feel a bit of the pain that their kidnapping has caused. People have questioned if it’s wise for me to continue my trip to Nigeria at a time like this, but I could think of no better time; when a nation is faced with the worst, people tend come together at their best. If you look around you can already see how this is happening one a global scale as people have started movements such as the #bringbackourgirls campaign. Going to Nigeria  I’m going to have a firsthand look at what people are coming together to do.

 

Nigeria is a place of depth and culture and I am soooo ready to experience it for myself. The countdown has begun, TWO WEEKS… AGHHHH, maybe I should start packing…

 

Love and Light

Floridaaaa

Here are some of the things I was up to during spring break, enough said, the photos will do the talking.