Seven Summers Ago

Breanna Chavez
May 26
6 min read

Hello everyone! Today’s post is inspired by Morgan Wallen’s song- Seven Summers Ago. If you follow me on social media, my recent obsession with MW began after his collab with Tate, and I’ve been streaming his new album ever since.

Seven summers ago would’ve been the summer of 2018- right after my freshman year of high school and right before my sophomore year. Fun times. . . not.

I had a love-hate relationship with summers growing up. I liked not having to stress about school, but I missed the structure school provided.

I’ve grown a lot in this area, and I actually enjoy downtime nowadays; however, I do still have my struggles from time to time.

Recently, I began to ask myself, “What am I actually afraid of?” One word keeps coming to mind- boredom.

Sounds strange, but it’s true. Here’s why I think boredom bothers me so much:

For as long as I can remember I’ve been a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe a little less than a perfectionist if I’m being honest. I’m okay with a B, some organized chaos, and a “go with the flow” type of day (as long as I know what time to flow will begin and end.) I don’t really need everything to be perfect, but I do want them to be good.

In high school, the extra free time meant I had more time to work towards my goals. My long-term goal was to get a full-ride scholarship to college, but in order to make my application competitive, I had several short-term goals along the way, including being head cheerleader, class president, and student council vice president (another example of me being a little less than a perfectionist. I was fine with letting Bailee be president). I also wanted to win as many state championships in the FFA as possible.

In the spirit of discussing the struggles I faced seven summers ago, I decided to dust off my journal and take a look at what younger Bre had on her heart. Exactly seven years ago today, here is a small portion of the prayer I wrote in my journal.

“Dear God, these past couple of days I have been feeling very overwhelmed. We have so much to do this summer, and I feel like I won’t be able to do it (read To Kill a Mockingbird, Agriscience Fair, Quiz Bowl, Interview, ACT Prep, and more.) Help me to be motivated to do these things & give me the resources (right words, etc.) to make these projects the best that they can be. I know whatever you think should happen will happen & I pray I will realize this & apply it to all areas of my life. I once again thank you for everything. Without you, I would have never made it through freshman year. I pray that I will hold your hand & rely on you even more sophomore year. I pray that I won’t find my worth in material things. I really struggle with that.”

I don’t know about you, but I can feel the weight of worry in the words I wrote. On the surface, it seems like I’ve got the typical case of type A student mixed with an anxiety disorder, but I think my dread for summers ran deeper than that. Because I wasn’t confined to school hours, I could technically work all the time, and I did. I read my assigned AP book at least three times, I wrote a 50-page Agriscience Fair report that won state, and that interview I was worried about- I ended up winning the scholarship attached to it. Clearly, I was doing just fine, but it was never enough. I didn’t want free time because that would mean I would be presented with the opportunity to either rest or work. I almost always chose work, and when I didn’t, I felt incredibly guilty. I didn’t know who I was outside of school and academics. I genuinely did homework all night unless I had a game to cheer at.

Side note: God wink edition:

Okay, so I KNOW I wrote down this prayer in 2018 because the entries before and after this have the year 2018, but, for some reason, I accidentally wrote 2017. . . perhaps God knew that seven years later I would be writing this blog post. I’m also reading a book called The Seven Year Slip right now. ALSO, last night was my cousin’s graduation party. We sang karaoke, and naturally Bailee and I requested Morgan Wallen. The kids suggested we sing 7 Summers Ago. According to the Google AI overview: In the Bible, the number 7 holds significant symbolic meaning, often representing completion, perfection, and spiritual fullness.” These could just be coincidences, but I doubt it.

Fast forward seven years. I’m a lot better at whole “work-life balance” thing, but I still don’t like feeling bored. Why? Because when I have nothing to do, I have the choice between worrying or worshipping, and frankly, worrying is easier. Boredom is an uncomfortable feeling that not a lot of people talk about; therefore, it’s also incredibly isolating.

If we look to Scripture, there is actually no mention of boredom in the Bible… great. There is mention of idleness, though.

In 2 Thessalonians 3:11, Paul writes, "For we hear that some among you are walking in idleness, not doing any work but meddling in other people's business."

This verse implies that idleness can lead to gossiping, unproductive slander, and unnecessary problems.

In a podcast episode I came across called “The Blessings of Boredom”, the host contrasted idleness with “strategic boredom”. While idleness never leads to anything good, strategic boredom leads to a myriad of different benefits including:

Time to process/meditate
Time to allow wonder to turn to worship
Time for creativity

God created us to seek novelty, and when we are bored with what the world has to offer, we create our own. Turns out, we are most like God when we are creating. How cool is that?

Many of us are missing out on the deepest experiences of relationship, creativity, and time with the Lord because we are scared of feeling discomfort. If we can endure boredom for just a little while, we will be amazed at the beautiful blessings waiting for us on the other side.

Let me give you an example.

A recent byproduct of my boredom is a newfound interest in scrapbooking. I like the idea of scrapbooking because it’s supposed to be messy; thus, perfection is off the table. It’s about taking random pieces and putting them together to create a capsule of memories. It’s about turning trash into treasure- literally.

The first scrapbook I made was for my mom. It was her Mother’s Day present this year. She loved it. I poured my whole heart into that thing, filling it with pages of prayers and praises. I enjoyed the process so much that I decided to create one for my cousin as a high school graduation gift. I was able to capture all of our funny memories and inside jokes while also filling it with encouraging messages that I wish someone would have told me going into college.

I’ve always felt like I have the gift of encouragement, and these books have allowed me to encourage the ones I love most in a tangible way.

All this scrapbooking made me motivated to be creative in other ways, so today, when boredom struck, rather than spiraling, I took out a spiral notebook and began drawing - just for fun. Free handing my drawing didn’t go so well, so I ended up tracing it, but I am still proud of how my little picture turned out.

Warning: art & creativity is extremely vulnerable. I was nervous to give my mom & cousin their scrapbooks & post my little drawing on social media. This is why we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord & work for an audience of One :)

“What are you going to do with it?” Bailee asked.

“It’s just for fun.” I replied. Because boredom is meant to be a blessing, and beautiful things are meant to be enjoyed (read last week’s blog here).

I hope you’ll join me in fighting the fear of boredom and getting comfy with creativity. In heaven, there won’t be boredom, so let’s make the most of it while it lasts.

Who knows, perhaps seven summers from now, I’ll be fighting boredom in a whole new stage of life- motherhood- which I hear is the most busy-bored I’ll ever be.

I guess we’ll see! Thanks for reading.