What’s Your Favorite Thing About Summer?

Every week, our Week in Rap Shout Out Contest gives students an opportunity to win a shout out for their school in the next Week in Rap. For this week’s contest, we asked you to tell us what you love about summer.

This week we’re giving a special shout out to sisters Lisa and Karen in Hamamatsu, Japan. Check out their favorite summer activities!

In the summer I love to eat watermelon. Especially when it’s hot. It’s so juicy and it really feels like summer. I like eating my watermelons outside with my friends and getting my hands sticky and spitting out the seeds.” — Lisa

For Karen, on the other hand, summer has a more unusual meaning: it’s the season of horse shows.

When people hear the word “summer”, most of them think about the heat, late mornings, late nights, and tons days to relax. However, when I hear the word summer, I think about the early mornings and the freezing temperatures then, early nights, and TONS of busy days; all the opposite things people are looking forward to. Why? Because I’m an equestrian. True, not every equestrian leads this crazy life like me, but the one that compete over the summer do.
     Most of the equestrian competitions are held in the summer. Therefore, we practice all year to enter these shows in the summer. When summer finally comes, we’re all thrown into this frenzy I like to refer as “horse show madness”. Horse shows start extremely early and we have to prepare our horses in time for our classes, which takes time. We have to groom them, tack them up, and do other shenanigans that ensure that our ponies and horses are absolutely ready to go. Then, we have to get ready ourselves. Since summer mornings are freezing, all the people come to the show grounds in sweats and sweatshirts. However, we have to show in white breeches, crisp white show shirts, riding boots shined to the heels with gleaming spurs, perfectly-fitted show coats, and somewhat presentable helmets. But accomplishing to look like this when you’re getting your horse ready proves to be nearly impossible. Horses like to slobber on people, and especially when they see that they’re wearing something clean. So how do we go into the show ring looking presentable? Well, you prepare your horse in sweats and finally at the last minute, you dash to your trunk, get your show things on in 0.5 seconds, and run back and hop on your horse. This procedure takes away pretty much all of your energy, therefore, when you finally finish showing, you are going to be exhausted. The only thing you want to do after horse shows is sleep.
     To get to the point, why do I like showing when it takes away almost all of your energy and makes you exhausted? True, the process is strenuous but all the bonds and memories that are created in the process between are absolutely priceless. Without horse shows, these memories wouldn’t exist and you would never be able to create such a strong bond with your horse. And this is why I love the early mornings, freezing temperatures, and early nights in the summer, it’s because there’s nothing I love more than horse showing. — Karen

Thanks for sharing your answers with us, girls!

Don’t forget to enter this Friday’s Week In Rap Shout-Out Contest for a chance to win a shout out in the next WIR. We’re taking a break for Independence Day, so our next winner will receive a shout out on July 11.