1. Your parents that you always thought were embarrassing with their bad jokes are actually hilarious and super chill.
We can all remember the days when your dad would make a bad joke when your friends were over, and you just wanted to bury your head in a pillow and wait for him to leave. Or maybe it was that time in the grocery store when your mom tried to make a joke in order to start a conversation with the person at the cash register, and you just wanted to bolt out of the doors. But when you come home for the summer, it makes you realize that your parents’ bad jokes are your favorite form of humor. Maybe it’s the fact that it feels so familiar, but maybe you matured enough to actually enjoy them now. Regardless, you can definitely appreciate dad jokes and lame puns completely
2. Somehow all of your stories now start with, “So this one time at UK…”
You never realized how many memories you were making while you were at school, but now you can’t help it while you try to explain to your friends back home just why that ONE night was SO funny. And of course your friends back home try to understand, but they can never fully get it because of how much you’re laughing and how many details you’re leaving out in the process. You couldn’t care less though, because you remember it to the fullest and can’t wait to have plenty of other nights like it.
3. Your memories make you fall more in love with UK while you’re home, which makes you just that much more excited to go back to school.
Even though as a kid you could never imagine wanting summer to end, college definitely has a different effect on you. You spend summer thinking of all your memories back at school (and trying to explain it to people back home) and how you just want to spend every single day with your friends in your favorite place on earth, LexVegas. Plus, going back to school means tailgating season, and you can’t wait to break out your favorite blue dresses (and bowties) for the Bowl.
4. You get jealous of all of your UK friends' lives because social media never lets you miss one second.
Trust me, we all love Snapchat and Instagram, but while I am stuck in my hometown, it seems as if everyone else is traveling across Europe, studying abroad in Asia, or on some elegant beach somewhere. I do love keeping up with my friends’ adventures, but at the same time, I want to have their lives. I end up living vicariously through them on their summer escapades.
5. The people from high school who you actually stayed close to are just generally more fun to hang out with now.
Maybe our high school friends are the reason coming home for summer can be exciting. And the reunion you have with those who you actually haven’t drifted away from is unforgettable. Although you may only have a few months together, you are certain to make those months filled with late nights, memories and laughs.
6. Your parents will never, ever understand that you really will stay out until 3 a.m. because you never had a curfew at school.
Whether it was pulling an all-nighter studying in Willy T or just losing track of time on the weekends, we have all had our fair share of late nights. So when you hang out with friends in your hometown until the early hours of the morning, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, until your parents yell at you about it the next day.
7. You actually miss your meal plan, even though you never want to admit it.
We forgot how simple it was to just walk a few minutes away, or even next door at times, and have other people cook our food for us. Now, we do understand that K-Lair’s fries or any of the food at Commons doesn’t taste (or look) like it should be eaten, but we miss how easy it was to access and how simple a meal swipe was. And we miss our flex more than anything.
8. You have even less money than you thought.
Now that we don’t have flex anymore and have to spend actual money whenever we go anywhere, we realize how broke we are. So, the typical college student gets a summer job to try to make some money that we say we’ll save (but we all know it won’t make it through the fall semester).
9. You love how you car is significantly closer.
We all “LOVE” the walk to K-Lot or to the R7 garage, but we are willing to sacrifice that love for the shorter distance and the amount of time saved whenever we need to drive anywhere. Plus, your car will suddenly feel less abandoned because it isn’t only being driven twice a month anymore. It’s a new sense of freedom.
10. You refuse to unpack for a while because that means you're home for more than a weekend.
It still seems a bit odd that we don’t all live in our dorms anymore and are hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away from our best friends. But at least we are comforted knowing that we’ll all be reunited in the fall.
