Let me just stand here in the rain and let the gravity of the very first summer of my life without a single fair, amusement park visit or carnival wash over me and dilute my blood into tears.
Sure, it's a first-world problem. It's also a way of life for ex-carnies like me. I've never passed up a fair, a ride or the food stands in my damn LIFE and now there will be nothing for at least one year.
I don't know if I hope it changes, but because I'm selfish, secretly I do. There is nothing better. You leave your worries (and your wallet) at the gates and scream the rest into the void, run the sugar in your blood up to hit the bell, win a prize, consider going on the run with the show (do it, you'll never regret it) and leave late into the night when the lights start to spin just a little.
Nothing else says summer like that, and so I'm allowed to grieve for it. Just for a minute here.