With Labor Day approaching, the summer is rapidly coming to a close. Many college students are preparing to leave if they have not already left.
Over the weekend, a Times intern spent a few hours at the Chilmark Store and asked young people the following questions: “What was your favorite summertime memory? Is there anything you wish you had done that you didn’t get to do this summer? What are you doing for the rest of the summer? And What does the school year hold for you?”
Joachim Langelotti, 17, Toulouse, France
Joachim has been on the Island for about a month and a half and is staying with the Maynard family. Going to the beach has been his favorite thing to do. “Oh, when we go to the beach, yeah, it’s good.” One thing he wishes he had done more often was surfing.
Joachim returns to France on Aug. 26 where he will begin his last year at Lycee Jean-Durand in Toulouse. He says he is excited to return home, but that he will miss the Island.
Isaiah Maynard, 14, Vineyard Haven
His favorite summer memory was a sailing trip to Mystic, CT.
“I wish I had gone to another concert off-Island,” he says about what he wishes he had done. “Tool is probably my favorite band, and I saw them last summer.”
Isaiah enter the 9th grade at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. “Yeah it’ll be fun. I come here in the summer but this summer I moved here. I used to live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.”
He said he’s excited but he misses his friends. But he also said he thinks he’ll make some new friends this year.
Kinsman Maynard, 17, Chilmark
Kinsman said his favorite memory was going to Mystic Seaport with his cousin, best friends Jared and Joachim. “It was fun because we just screwed around and did stuff at 12 o clock at night and went to like McDonalds and bugged everybody. It was really fun. We made a model boat. It was from a kiosk for like 4 year olds. But we were like, ‘Lets do this!’ and we made like, the most legit boat ever. It’s called The Pug.”
Asked what he wished he had done, he replied, “Skydiving. No. I wish that I didn’t get poison ivy. And, uh, I wish that I had gone to a concert.”
Kinsman, a senior at Falmouth Academy, said, “I go back to school on the 7th. I’ll be applying to colleges, going to concerts and stuff. My cousin is staying on the Vineyard so it’s gonna be cool.”
Eliana Grossman, 12, Morrison, Colorado
“My favorite summertime memory is when I go to camp in Michigan. It’s a Jewish camp, it’s a little isolated hippie camp. We recycle, we just hang out and swim, and it’s really fun. I go for three weeks usually.
“I wish I had gotten to shop here,” Eliana said. She’s usually on the Island for about three weeks and was disappointed she didn’t get in any shopping time during her stay.
Asked if she was doing anything before she went back to school she said, “No. I’m going back to school on the 23, so no plans.”
Asked if she was excited, she replied “No, oh my God, no. New school, new people, I’m not excited. Um, I’m looking forward to taking all of my new classes and getting a locker and meeting new people and friends.”
Danielle Klausner, 12, Westchester, New York
Danielle said her favorite summertime memory was hanging out with friends at Camp Echo Lake in Lake George.
Asked if there was anything she didn’t get to do this summer Danielle said, “No, I think I did everything that I wanted to do.”
Danielle will enter the 7th grade when she goes back to school. “This is going to be my third year in middle school. I think it is going to be a good year.”
Emily Mercier, 19, Edgartown
Emily works at the Chilmark Community Center running the tennis shack. Asked what her favorite summer memory was, Emily said, “It would probably be like, this big tennis tournament with a cookout.”
Emily wishes she had gotten to do the beach more often. “I tend to work late so I’d always get there at like 5 o clock and it wasn’t even warm.”
Her plans for the remainder of summer are to relax and go to the beach before she returns to her sophmore year at Smith College.
“I go back to school the 5th of September. I’m just excited to go back to school after the summer, see people I haven’t seen in a few months. I’m not excited to take a bunch of really hard classes like organic chemistry, but I am excited to go back and sing with my a cappella group and like, be with a bunch of friends.” Emily said of this summer, “It was one of the better summers I had.”
Alexandra Barlowe, 15, New York City
Asked what her favorite summertime memory was, Alexandra replied, “I have to say that the fireworks last night in Oak Bluffs were pretty good. Yeah, they were probably one of the best in years, they were awesome. The very last firework actually like came down on the gazebo and I think it was fine, nobody got hurt or anything, but it was like crazy.”
Asked what her plans are for the rest of the summer, she said, “I’m going home in two days and I’m probably going to have to do pre-season for soccer, which is two weeks long and very hard and annoying, but you know I guess it’s worth it to play on a team. I start I think September 13th or so. Kind of late.”
Imani Graham, 15, New York City
“About three weeks ago I went to Antigua which is this island in the Caribbean. My grandma has a house there. We’ve been going every year for like the past 8 years, it’s just a lot of fun. Like, I was a camp counselor and every day we went to the beach. We actually participated in Carnival, which is fun because we danced all day in the streets. I think they’re celebrating their freedom from European countries. It was just a lot of fun.
“I wish,” said Imani, “before we had left, I had hung out with the kids a little more in my neighborhood you know, because I’m switching schools. I tried to hang out with the kids from my old school ’cause I’m going to miss them.”
Asked how she’s finishing off the summer she said, “When I get home I have to do all of my summer homework. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have pushed it off but you know, going to the Vineyard…”
