Everyone always looks forward to summer. It’s the be-all and end-all of the assignments and hard work you've stressed about for weeks on end, with all your hopes resting on the guaranteed four-month vacation lying ahead. Until summer actually arrives, that is, and you realize that most of your plans for spontaneous adventures and warm days spent lying on the beach were mere fantasies. If you’re a college student, it’s pretty easy to assume that the realities of your summer are unlikely to match your high expectations. So keep 'em low, so you'll be pleasantly surprised when things actually go as you'd hoped.
1. Expectation: “It’s going to be so nice to have free time to just unwind and relax.”
Reality: Jobs. Internships. Babysitting. Could someone please define “relaxation” for me?
2. Expectation: “I can’t wait to eat at all of my favorite hometown restaurants!”
Reality: Restaurants? You’re a poor college student. How about a McDonald’s Happy Meal?
3. Expectation: “I can’t wait to go to the pool/beach every day!”
Reality: It’s still May. May is too cold for the pool or the beach. You end up spending every night in bed with a bowl of ice cream and your best friend: your laptop.
4. Expectation: “I can’t wait for all the adventures my home friends and I are going to have!”
Reality: No one is free from now until the end of time, so you better start enjoying your own company. Summer jobs for the win.
5. Expectation: “Having a car is going to make getting around so much easier!"
Reality: You remember you don’t actually have a car and that it actually belongs to your parents, who are less than eager to hand over their keys every night.
6. Expectation: “I’m going to work out and eat healthy every day!”
Reality: Does walking from your fridge back to your bed count as cardio?
7. Expectation: “I’m going to read so many books now that I actually have time”
Reality: Time for reading? More like time for watching every season of "Grey's Anatomy."
8. Expectation: “This is the year I’m going to have a summer fling.”
Reality: The only things you're flinging are food wrappers into the trash.
9. Expectation: “I’m going to make bank this summer.”
Reality: Did someone say “taxes”?
10. Expectation: “I’m never going to want to go back to school.”
Reality: *Two weeks into summer* Is it too early to start packing for next year?
