Sad girl reflective summer starts now

The last few weeks of August have long held a special place in my heart. Warm evenings, scorching beach days, watermelon-filled picnics, joyous barbecues, late-night bon fires, and of course my birthday (which is obviously a week-long celebratory affair). Anyway, what’s not to love? Unfortunately, August also brings about the looming start dates of academia which I no longer am privy to, however a good deal of my friends on Monhegan are.

One by one, my three-month confidantes have slowly departed the island via ferries queuing some painfully sad farewell wharf jumps and teary-eyed promises to stay in touch throughout the year. First it was Sarah and James who left, they worked for the Trailing Yew and are finishing up their senior year semesters in Ohio and Delaware. Then it was our beloved Kerry, the part-time Monhegan House dishwasher and brewery catch-all extraordinaire. She’s headed back to Georgetown in DC. Siobhan left shortly after that to pursue her freshman year at Syracuse and nearly everyone jumped for Elise when she headed back to New York last week. Emmett abandoned us yesterday triggering the hardest goodbye for me thus far, and McKenna’s scheduled to depart the island in a mere week and a half.

I feel so incredibly devastated to watch some of my closest friends move on and leave me behind as they pursue their next chapter of adventures, but I also have this intense gratitude for the summer memories we’ve all cultivated. I made the kind of best friends between this June and August that most people don’t discover in a lifetime, and I have no one but Monhegan Island and a risky last-minute housekeeping job acceptance to thank for that. This place truly draws a a certain curated kind of person with a certain kind of accepting, appreciative, live-in-the-moment lifestyle that I’ve seldom found elsewhere with such consistency.

With that being said, I mostly wanted to take some space on this particular blog to look back on and paint a picture of the kind of shenanigans me and my friends got into this season.

For some context: we call ourselves the Season 3 crew, given that for the original members (Sarah, James, Emmett, and McKenna) this is in-fact their third rendezvous together. We keep one big group chat, (not that any of us spends more than a couple hours on our phones per day), it’s mostly for logistics and finding one another for nightly/daily activities between work shifts. We even coined a term for when we’re headed out to do something and someone wishes to picked up along the way: scoop service.

The Barn

I’ve no doubt mentioned the barn before, but I don’t think I gave quite an accurate enough portrayal of how much time was truly spent there between the lot of us. The barn was a haven for low key card games, casual beers, getting high, and throwing absolute historic ragers one in the same. We hosted themed parties (Jungle and Monochrome seemed to be the biggest hits), Beer Pong tournaments, charcuterie evenings, late-night nacho gatherings, Monopoly matches, day-off brunches, and so so so much more. As a result of it’s many uses, the barn held a lasting reputation as sort of a constant mess, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The broken screen door, crooked signs, broken glasses, and bins overflowing with empty beer cans only added to the character of the space in my opinion. Townwater, a term used to describe the dozen five-year-old boxes of Franzia wine passed down from one of Emmett’s deceased family remembers also deserves an honorable mention for inspiring many intoxicated nights. It’s still aged wine so that makes it classy right?

The Lighthouse

The lighthouse holds a lot of different memories for me this summer for a few different reasons, the first being lighthouse parties. Tristan has a massive speaker (that naturally lights up with a rainbow of neon colors) that we regularly brought up the hill to the lighthouse and blasted music with. It sounds pretty straightforward, but you wouldn’t imagine how much turnout we would get from all the other seasonal workers just looking to dance away the stresses of their grueling day jobs. Of course we did get a few noise complaints and unhappy remarks about us climbing up on the lighthouse museum roof, but what's a little fun without a little repercussion anyway? The other memory I look back on fondly was our Season 3 heist during which we broke into the lighthouse and snuck up the very top. Seeing as Monhegan's statute of limitations for breaking and entering is presumably more than a few weeks, I’d appreciate it if no one tattled on me for that one. We looked like a clan of cat burglars tip-toeing in there dressed in black from top to bottom.

Stargazing

With a huge lack of light pollution on the island (compared to most of the inshore towns and cities), Monhegan has some of the best night skies I’ve ever seen. My friends and I spent so many nights up on Horns Hill, just laying out and counting out dozens (literally dozens) of shooting stars. It’s ironic because I never knew what more to wish for when those flashes of light zoomed by––I had everything I wanted right then and there. We also got to experience several moonrises and consequently several moonrise parties during which we watched some gorgeous pink moons rise from the horizon on Burnthead cliff.

Sunsets

I’ve always thought my dad was a little overboard with the amount of sunsets he strives to see wherever he is. After sending the summer on Monhegan though, I completely understand. I’ve never seen so many gorgeous pink skies and celestial clouds in my life as I have these past few months. It almost feels weird to miss one now. It takes nearly five minutes in any direction to find the perfect viewing spot whether it be an oceanside rock, a grassy hill, or a packed wrap-around porch. Luckily, Mark and I have had the pleasure of doing weekly sunset bottles of wine paired with French music on some beautiful spots this season. We talk about the finer things and travel stories before smashing our empty bottles during the perfect crescendo of whatever song is playing. Somebody’s gotta keep this island full of sea glass.

Kayaking

I thought about not including kayaking and instead noting the specific destinations that the Season 3 crew often kayaked to: Manana, Pulpit, Pebble Beach, etc. But ultimately, I think the water transportation journey was truly the most critical part of the experience overall. We probably owe Tristan a whole new kayak for the amount of times he's taken us out on the water for free, but for now we’ll settle up with him via ciders and the occasional bag of mushrooms. Some of my favorite pictures to look back on are the ones taken at Manana. We did everything from fishing, cliff-jumping, harvesting mussels, cooking food, hiking around, exploring abandoned buildings, chasing goats, and simply being in good company having solid conversations. There was nothing like it. In fact even the pictures don't do it justice, so take my word for it folks and just get yourselves out here! I had never considered myself to be much of a kayaker or a water sports person at all to be honest with you, but something about being in total control of your buoyant vessel rubbed me the right way this summer and I have a feeling I’ll be doing much more of it in the near future.

Although this week may signify the end of an era on the Season 3 front, I still have a month left to embark on yet another phase of my time here on Monhegan. I anticipate September to be filled with lots of self-reflection, hiking, drawing, writing (yes that's right guys, hopefully I'll once again get the blog on a consistent schedule), and appreciation for the people, places, and things I've had the pleasure of getting to know here.