JUNE 21 - Summer Solstice

This is so weird. This sort of "coincidence" always, always happens to me.

I was bored because I came home from school at 11 AM (because we have finals and it's the last week of school! so we have short days). So I went over to my gigantic bookshelf, the one I was so proud of as a young bookworm, and just picked out the book, Love, Stargirl (by Jerry Spinelli) because I had asked my dad to buy it for me many, many years ago. I think, when I was in sixth grade. So that makes it about four years. And the strangest thing is that this is the one book I've never finished reading out of all the five hundred books on my bookshelf (not an exaggeration).

I think I got tired of it halfway through. I didn't understand, as a child, why Stargirl had to mull about Leo Borlock all the time, how she could just stand on a hill and what was so magical about it.
But now I do understand. Reading this book makes me realize how far I've come from that little sixth grader.
Stargirl was probably and still is one of my favorite books of all time. But the reason I initially liked it so much was because I thought of her as a hero, someone fantastical, magical--someone that didn't exist on earth. But now I like the book and character for a different reason. I understand her. I know why she stands in the Enchanted field by herself, why she wore ball gown to watch the sunrise on top of the hill, what she was talking about exactly, how she felt when she watched that sunrise.

Which brings me to what I was originally talking about.

Today is June 21. The first day of summer. The summer solstice. The longest day of the year.
I picked up and technically began reading Love, Stargirl again, well, from the beginning today, June 21. And in the book, I read,

"Summer Solstice. When you woke up this morning, dear Leo, the sun was directly above the Tropic of Cancer. You will never find it any farther north. This is the longest day of the year. From now until the Winter Solstice on December 21, each day will be a few minutes shorter than the one before. Today is the official beginning of summer."

It blows my mind.

In the book, it is June 21.
Today in reality, it is June 21.

IT BLOWS MY MIND.

Definitely not coincidence. Nothing ever is coincidence. I know it.

But do you understand--just---what happened? Oh my god, oh my god.

And for a second, after I read that excerpt, I started to scold myself for not remembering or realizing that June 21 was the Summer Solstice (because I thought today was June 22, because my time system is whack).

SO NATURALLY I'M GOING TO WATCH THE SUNSET LATER TODAY. The sunset of the longest day of the year. Also the first day of summer.

WHO'S WITH ME?