My Association to Summer

My Association to Summer.

A short story that explains what I associate to the comfort that the season of summer brought me, it also dives into my love for the famous ghibli movie “ A whisper of the Heart”, that reminded me of this precious memory and inspired me to bring these feelings into words.

When I was growing up, I liked Summer holidays , the most. Although the place I lived , was really awfully boring, and you’d get no signal or data , there was also a jungle , behind my house which was filled wild snakes and tons of bushy trees . They wouldn’t even allow a speck of sunlight in , so you’d only feel the disgusting humidity in the air but no real sun, because of this fact I didn’t understand how much I liked sunsets , because the sky was always out of my view thanks to bushy trees . This is why I loved my grandmothers house. She had a huge field right behind her house , the wind was always amazing and the air genuinely felt fresh , it was like genuinely growing up on a farm with the pigs and chicken all around , usually the field would be wet but during the summer it would dry out a lot, so that means we could walk ahead in the field. Right there at the edge of her yard right where there was an unrestricted view of the sun, she would dry peeled coconut for oil, me and my cousin sister would sit at each edge and just watch the coconut making sure no animal stole any pieces , I would sit at the edge and read a book till I fell asleep under the sun , that was my favourite pass time.

Recently as a 19 year old I came across whisper of the heart the ghibli movie. I didn’t know why I resonated so much with it or why I was so attached to it or why it stuck to me. So, this writing piece is an embodiment of my nostalgia and also an explanation to my obsession with Whisper of the heart. The movie started with the famous song country roads , I had heard this song a lot it was a famous country songs , but this version of the song was sung by Olivia newton. I was instantly hooked to it, this version actually had a genuine nostalgic appeal to it , her voice really conveyed a lot of emotions that the original singer couldn’t . the contrast in the movie was also very interesting, the song was about country roads but we’re instead met with beautifully drawn visuals of city lights and 1995 Tokyo city life . Then we’re shown a very summery scene, where Shizuku our main character is going up to her house after buying a cold drink in the evening. Shizukus house which was a typical 2 bedroom apartment building really stuck to me and I felt this nostalgic wave hit me. I was really confused as to why it felt nostalgic to me because I grew up living in a large 2 floor villa separated away from other houses and with a literal mini rain forest behind my house. I never understood why I was so comforted by these old simple apartment buildings , that was until I fell asleep and had a dream.

The dream was very comforting I didn’t want to wake up , I dreamt I was in my cousins old flat then, It clicked.

During my summer holidays as a child , I alone would go live with my aunty and cousin. My uncle had a government job and was provided with government housing . It was a common but old flat , very close and consistent You know the type—rectangular, copy-paste buildings, all close together, they lived in that kind of military-style government housing , because of this everyone in the colony was very tight knitted , everyone was always aware of me even thought I would only sometimes stay over , now my aunt lived close , to my grandmas house but this scenery was completely different to my grandmothers house and provided a whole new and different level of comfort. So now every-time I finished my trip at my grandmothers house, as I mentioned above , I would go to my aunts house right in the peak of the summer holiday, when the weather was the hottest and the summer wind the strongest. Their apartment would always have wind blowing all over , I would sit in their balcony reading my cousins comics and enjoying the wind , sometimes we would paint or colour outside because of how fast the colours dried , then we would take an afternoon nap. In the evening my aunt would take us the park which was in the colony, which was basically heaven for a child my age at the time , one swing on the swings and I was in love , then later she would take us in the forest behind the colony to collect wild berries, I enjoyed this part, only because I liked walking in the forested area under the sun with cool wind blowing . I would walk on the stoney ground pretending I was walking up a mountain.Then we would come back for tea , my uncle always spoilt me rotten so I was always given delicious snacks during tea time. After showering and dinner , everyone in the society would take joint walks together , mostly the men and women separate, it was fun. Summer holidays are all about staying up but my cousin would always fall asleep early 😾 , and due to her I would also fall asleep early , but I would love waking up in the mornings , their birds would chirp loudly waking me up, most of the time my uncle would already be at work and my aunt would already be outside so it ended with me and cousin sitting in bed watching Mickey Mouse and the clubhouse till aunt came back and made us fold our bedding , after that it was the same comforting routine of sleeping , walking in the forest , riding bikes, playing in the park and of course enjoying the wind till I eventually left to go back to my house in the jungle~. This memory though, is what I associate summer with. And since whisper of the heart had such familiar scenes from my life in it , I instantly fell in love with the movie , to me it’s just summer personified , the first time I watched this movie is when my uncle and his family moved out of this nostalgic flat . This put an end to my summer fantasies , since I was abroad by then I couldn’t even say goodbye to it , I doubt they even know the significance their old home had on me, and now whenever I go back to Goa on holiday after leaving the UK , I’m met with the same jungle trees covering the sky , the same place with no internet reception at all. And just shady trees all over. I’m not complaining though it’s still home , but I still can’t help but reminisce the flat that I can now never go back to ,so this is to my last, constant and only summer memory , and my forever comforting place. Goodbye , I hope I can find another area that will help me recreate this feeling of summer that I only felt in this old flat that I barely visited more then 10 times a year and still had a lasting impression left on me:).