Pools closed, camps canceled and the list goes on and on. A Champaign-Urbana area kid shares his optimistic outlook on the summer of 2020 — in his words, summer is not canceled.
Writer’s note: I wrote this post with my 9-year-old son after he said a lot of kids must be “sad and mad” about how this summer is shaping up. His outlook and encouragement for other kids to embrace what they CAN do, especially in nature, brightened my day, and I hope that it does for your family, as well.
This was what Troy had to say when I asked what he would say to kids who are upset their “usual” summer activities are canceled and options are limited for the coming months.
You can go to nature and start out easy, and just start fishing or something. Or just go to a little bitty stream and play around in there. Fishing is really cool because you can catch fish and have friendly competitions with your family. When you’re playing in streams, you can play around in the water and catch really cool things like crayfish, little minnows and sometimes frogs, too.
I like being in nature so much because when you catch stuff, you can play around with it and play around with it and release it and watch it and then like 10 minutes later you can catch something else. It’s like you’re never ever bored because there’s always something to do. Time goes really really fast because you always have an animal in your hand.
Some parents might not like going to nature but you can just go out by your house or to a park and play. You can tell your parents you want to play in nature because there are really cool spots with lots of really cool creatures – and most of them really won’t hurt you.
You can climb on big, big logs and play on them and then my sister comes and plays around on them, too. Your brothers and sisters can learn to climb them, too.
If you’re feeling sad, you can talk to a dog or a cat or one of the creatures you catch. Or if you don’t have an animal, when you’re having a sad time, you can go to a big meadow and play around in the flowers and grass.
I’m going to have a great summer because of God and nature. I hope you are, too!
Troy is a 9-year-old who loves everything about nature and lives in Mahomet with his family. His mom, Amy, is the chief content strategist for chambanamoms.com.