In Becky's Words: My Mental Health Summer

I decided, after the 2020-2021 school year, to commit to absolutely NOTHING academic-related this summer. This is my Mental Health Summer.

First, my husband, Dan, and I planted oak tree saplings.

My father has been trying to give these plants to us for months now. During one of my pandemic singalongs while school was shut down, I played the song, “I found a little acorn lying on the ground . . . just look we have grown, my daddy and me. An oak tree!"

My dad commented on the video and said he did, in fact, have two oak tree seedlings grown from acorns. Of course he did. They were sitting in his backyard in Twin Falls. This was months ago. We finally picked them up a few weeks ago and planted them in our backyard in Boise.

Then, we went back to the movie theater for the first time in a year. We saw In the Heights because what else would I, the musical theater nerd, want to see on the big screen?

I have also been doing a lot of jogging on the Greenbelt. I have also been doing a lot of sneezing on the Greenbelt. The other morning, I sneezed so loud, I startled a dog, the lady walking him, and a bunch of construction workers.

"There's lots of pollen flying around here!" I called out to all the people (and pets) staring at me in disbelief.

I got my mammogram in June, a few months later than usual. Fun fact: Getting a mammogram has gotten easier over the years. I think I'm used to the boob squishing now. Chalk it up to one more lucky thing we women experience on the road to middle-aged. I still breathed a sigh of relief when I got the results in the mail. Cancer is a scary word, no matter what.

Also this summer, we had so much fun with my uncle, my cousin, and her family from out-of-state, showing them all around Boise, trying not get them too lost when I was the tour guide.