The Last Summer

An ode to the summerhouse girls

I’ve lived with my sister Audrey and our friend Sarah for about 4 years now. We live right around the corner from the beach and do our best to embody the beach lifestyle. We’ve always called our home summerhouse. We’ve always been called the summerhouse girls.

This is our last summer living together.

It’s bittersweet for sure. It’s beautiful because it means exciting changes are around the corner. It’s hard because we love living together.

We host all the book club activities every month. We’ve watched each other grow through new jobs and relationships. We’ve walked through hard seasons of grief. We have tv shows we only watch together and regularly attend workout classes as a group of three. We’ve hosted family members and friends for visits. We’ve thrown more themed parties than I can count.

We’ve dubbed this upcoming season as “the last summer.”

It may sound dramatic. It is. BUT it really does make us grateful for every moment together.

from our house warming party 4 years ago

Finding women to live with in your twenties is a big commitment. This is a time of life fraught with big emotions and big life changes. It’s important who you entrust yourself to. I can’t imagine the latter part of my twenties living anywhere else with anyone else. This is an ode to girlhood, of course. But really an ode to best friends.

We’ve been thinking of things we’d like to do for our last summer - take a surf lesson, host another beer Olympics, swim at sunrise, watch the new Carley Fortune book adaption show. But as I think of all of this “last summer”, what I really hope for is more mornings drinking coffee in the living room together, Saturdays where we stay on the beach all day, Audrey letting us taste her new recipes, Sarah driving us with the top down in the jeep, and snuggling with the cats.

All three of us are summer girls through and through. I think when you live in a beach town this is bound to happen. How sweet that the last few months we will be living together is the time of year that makes us feel most alive.

I never want to take good friendships for granted. I’d hope that I would be present this last summer, soaking in every moment together. What a gift that we have been given in each other, in this house, in this time of our lives.

our most recent photo - sam and i’s engagement party at our house that they put together

I think we’ve always known how good we’ve had it. I don’t have any feelings of “I wish I could go back and tell myself not to take this for granted.” And that’s a really good place to sit in. It’s always meant something. It’s always been special. I’ll forever be grateful. I’ll forever be better because of them.

There are plenty of adventures to come; plenty of life to live together. This is just the beginning of something new to walk through together.

“A home to come back to every day of their lives.
Where they would all belong or long to be.
A place on the Jellicoe Road.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road