I mustn’t dare dream, for in these evenings of monotonous cold and rain, my desires of the free can only be muted. With every breath I take, the need for summer weather to return aches in my lungs like the accidental inhalation of your favorite beverage.

I close my eyes. The luminescence of computer screens accompanies the orange glow emitted from a nearby lamp as together, they cast a harmonious blend upon my face. My music hums with a light bass as the “thump, thump, thump” and joined Armin Van Buuren vocals cast me deeper into this dream, this vision of happiness, this feeling for summer. In this mind of mine so under-rug-swept, there is only so much I can offer.

I dream, I dream so deeply of the outskirts of our OSU campus – there’s a road, like out of a movie, that is straight and paralleled by farmland, animals, and wooden structures. In the late afternoon and sunset, I so desire to run this way and get to the covered bridge located at its end. And then maybe I’ll run some more until it’s night and the skies are dark. Then maybe, it’ll be you there with me under the stars – and we can lay there in our own world, on the grass, in the warm evening, entranced in this perfection.

I know what I need to do when the time is right. I know how to finally live this dream. I’ve worked so hard to get here… And now I must wait for every sleepless night to bring about the most perfect day.