On October 5, my countdown began: 30 days until my 30th birthday. In honor of this, on each of the 30 days leading up to my birthday I will recount one memory from the past 30 years… either one that has helped define me, one that makes me laugh, one that makes me think, one that encourages me…  or maybe a little of everything. If possible, I will post a photo to go along with the memory.

It’s my 30/30/30 Project: 30 years. 30 memories. 30 days.

Here is my memory for Day #16:

Growing up, summer was all about going to our pool club.

We were members there from the time I was 1 until I was 14, and those 10 summer weeks every year defined the carefree days of my childhood and early adolescence.

Starting at age 5, I practiced every morning, rain or shine, with the swim team.

I made friends and “frenemies” (sometimes on the same day, with the same people) on the playground.

I learned to do pikes and flips and back dives off the diving board.

I tried to convince my mom (unsuccessfully, I might add) that a frozen Snickers from the snack bar was a better snack choice than the fruit she packed.

I took tennis lessons and practiced my free throws on the basketball courts.

I felt the excitement of summer crushes. And the pain of a broken heart.

I looked forward to going to the pool club every day during the summer. And during the fall, winter and spring, I would count down the days until the pool club would open again.

But once I entered my teens and had friends who drove to the beach, and a boyfriend who had a pool in his backyard, the pool club wasn’t as exciting as it had once been.

Spending the day making frienship bracelets, rounding up teams for tennis raquet baseball, and playing in the pool didn’t sound as enticing anymore as going on a date to the beach, taking a day trip to Martha’s Vineyard or making some extra spending money at a part-time job.

And since I was the youngest of my parents’ four kids (and therefore the last one to really take advantage of the pool club) my parents decided not to renew our 13-year-long membership the summer I was 15.

We may have left the pool club, but the pool club did not leave me so easily.

Nostalgia can be very powerful, and as the years went by, especially during the summer, I longed for those summers at the pool club more and more.

When my oldest brother and his family re-joined the club in 2004, and Audrey and her family re-joined in 2007, I was so happy that their kids would have the opportunity to fall in love with summer in the same way we did.

It is still a little strange walking back through the main gates of the club in the summer. In a lot of ways, the club looks the same as it did when I was growing up there.

I can now share these wonderful moments with my nieces and nephews, and watch them grow to love our special pool club, too.

It’s like old times, but with new experiences.

With new memories, new faces and new adventures.