Growing Kids, Burning Forests, AI Surge: Cherishing This Summer’s Moments

This summer was different. I felt it in the growth spurt of my children, in the unusual dryness of our forests and the fires they brought; in my own surprising reliance on AI. Everything is changing. Rapidly. Who knows how many summers I have left when my girls still need me so much? While their soft, little hands still clasp onto mine so tightly, while our life here is still at peace. All I wanted was this world as we know it to last forever.

So, I went all out, choosing every day to be with my daughters—before they slip away, like the orange sun sinking over the horizon. Day trips, swimming, hiking, kayaking, playdates, and laughter with friends and family, sleepovers just because we could. And because the deamons in the Kpop Deamon Hunters were so scary, my girls clung to me all night after watching it—one on the left, the other on the right. Heaven. Then they woke up the next morning and joyfully sang and danced to the Golden and Soda Pop for the rest of the summer.

This is how I will remember it.

I didn’t play chess. I didn’t write. I didn’t carve out any “me” time at all. I parked it all for the fall. I was completely free, bathing in my children’s love and all the lighthearted moments we shared. And then Matteo Boccelli released a remake of Mi Historia Entre Tus Dedos, which sent me spiraling back to when I was 12, when I first heard that song. What a beautiful surprise. Didn’t I dream back then that my life could be exactly like this? I did. I so did!

-August 25, 2025