“The summer I finished my first novel Ghana Must Go, I drove across west Africa: from Accra to Lomé to Cotonou to the deliciously named Ouagadougou.” FirstsNovelSummerWestFinishedGhanaWest Africa Author:Taiye Selasi
“I think I got turned onto The Beach Boys for the first time with the 'Endless Summer' album in 1974. The power of that music still, to this day, bypasses the brain and goes straight to the heart. You don't have to think about it; it's something that you feel.” ThinkingFeelsFirstsHeartStillsBrainBoysSummerFirst TimeAlbumsEndlessBeachThis DayBypassBeach Boys Author:John Stamos
“I was interning at a children's theater group in Kentucky - that was my first job out of college. I had jumped around a couple of regional theaters, and I was about to go back to Maine to work at a summer Shakespeare theater there. I didn't want to just jump around the country from gig to gig. I really wanted to go to a city and get involved in a theater scene and a theater community.” WantFirstsChildrenCountryWantedJobsCommunityCitiesGroupsCollegeCoupleInvolvedSceneSummerTheaterGet InvolvedGigsKentuckyMaine Author:Timothy Simons
“In the summer after sixth grade, I took a class at St. Robert Bellarmine. My first role, I was the villain in a play, and I forgot all my lines. I think I cried my way through the performance.” ThinkingWayFirstsPlayLinesClassRolesSummerPerformancesMy WayGradesVillainCriedSixth Grade Author:Nicholas D'Agosto
“This was one of those perfect New England days in late summer where the spirit of autumn takes a first stealing flight, like a spy, through the ripening country-side, and, with feigned sympathy for those who droop with August heat, puts her cool cloak of bracing air about leaf and flower and human shoulders.” FirstsHumansCountrySpiritSidesPerfectAirFlowerLateSummerEnglandStealingShouldersFlightHeatAutumnLeafsSpyAugustCloaksNew EnglandSummertimeSummer DaysRipeningSummer SunSummer GardenSummer InspirationalLeaves And FlowersLate Summer Author:Sarah Orne Jewett
“Two Seasons, it is said, exist- The Summer of the Just, And this of Ours, diversified With Prospect, and with Frost- May not our Second with its First So infinite compare That We but recollect the one The other to prefer?” FirstsMaySaidTwoSummerSeasonsInfiniteCompareJuneFrost Book:The Poems of Emily Dickinson Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson
“This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove. Our first flaws were emerging, but they were being corrected. Blurry vision could be fixed invisibly with the magic of the contact lens. Crooked teeth were pulled straight with braces. Spotty skin could be chemically cleared. Some girls were turning beautiful. A few boys were growing tall.” FirstsKidsAgeSchoolBeautifulGirlThreeVoiceVisionBoysGrowingMagicMiddleSummerShotsSkinsMiracleTeethContactFixedBreastsFlawsTallInchesLensesEmergingDoveCrookedMiddle SchoolBracesBlurryContact LensesCrooked Teeth Book:The Age of Miracles Source: The Age of Miracles
“Way back last summer I asked some of the most outstanding educational minds in this Nation to tackle this problem. I gave them a single instruction: find out how we can best invest each education dollar so that it will do the most good. Your support and the support of every leading education group proves that they did their job better than I had hoped, because for the first time we have succeeded in finding goals which unite us rather than divide us.” WayMindFirstsProblemJobsLastsNationsGoalEducationSupportGroupsProveFindingsSummerFirst TimeDollarsEducationalDividesInstructionOutstandingLast Summer Author:Lyndon B. Johnson