As another summer comes to a close, it's easy to get excited about moving back into your apartment at school, seeing all your college friends again, and being on your own once more. There's a sense of freedom once you're back at school - maybe that boring summer job is over or it's nice to finally have your own space again away from home. The start of a new school year is exciting in so many ways, yet eventually a few weeks into the new semester, when you're drowning in assignments, you're going to be dreaming for those summer days once more. In those dreams, you will most likely be longing for:
- A home-cooked meal: Honestly, I never fully appreciated what good food tasted like until I had to make it myself. Refusing to settle for Ramen noodles (I go one step up to Easy-Mac), it was important for me to know how to cook. While an easy enough task, there is nothing worse than being stressed out from all the work you have piling up and knowing you still have to make yourself something edible for dinner. The next time you see your parents, give them a hug and say thank you.
- Your bed: Let's face it, most of us sleep on plastic mattresses at school. No matter how nice your mattress pad is, it will always be a plastic mattress. While it's easy to understand its practicality (you'd rather not think about the grossness), it most likely provides a less than satisfactory sleep. You long for your plush, comfortable bed back home and count the days until you are reunited with your real one true love.
- Sleeping until noon: Speaking of your bed, you no longer have the ability to sleep until noon every single day. Most of our schedules simply do not allow this - we have classes to go to and deadlines to meet. Our weekends are dedicated to sleep, and yet sometimes this is still not enough. College is exhausting and coming back from a summer of rest is a tough shock to the system.
- No school: Fairly obvious but true nonetheless. Summer is a time for relaxation, no assignment deadlines looming over your head or tests that you have to cram for. During syllabus week you think, "Wow this course is going to be so easy". Famous last words everyone. Next thing you know you have three papers, four exams, and 2 discussion board posts all due by Friday at 3 p.m. and all you want to do is curl up into the fetal position and cry.
- Your high school friends: Summer is a time for you to spend time with the friends you haven't seen all year. After blowing up each other's phones all semester long, summer was a time for you to finally reunite. There was probably a lot of yelling, hugging, and general nonsense that only comes from years of knowing someone. These are the friends who knew you during a time most of us would like to forget, and they still love you anyway. Once summer is over everyone goes their separate ways again and you all count the days until your next reunion.
- Your parents: Those first few days of summer you're happy to spend time with your parents. You missed them and they certainly missed you. They want to hear all about how your last semester went, how finals were, and how all of your friends are. As the summer wears on they might start to drive you crazy with their questions and their rules. However, once you've been back at college for a few weeks, you miss them. If you haven't talked to your parents in a few weeks - go call them.
- Your pets: One of the major drawbacks of going away for college is you have to leave your furry friend behind. When you're having a bad day nothing makes it better quite like the love you get from your pet. As you walk around campus you get extreme pet envy of every person who is lucky enough to have one.
- Your favorite local spot: Every hometown has one - the restaurant/bar/chain that everyone knows about and everyone goes to. Once you're back at school, you suddenly crave those french fries from ____ or the pizza from ____ and you realize that nothing will even come close to satisfying that craving until your back at home.
- Your summer job: If we're being honest, most summer jobs are terrible. You dread every day going into work and swear up and down that this is the last summer you will be working there. However, what makes these jobs bearable are the people you work with. You commiserate with each other about how you can't wait for the summer to be over but once it is, you can't help wishing that you were back with your work friends, doing crazy things just to make the hours go by.
- Money: Unless you work during the school year, that bank account that was once full of money from your summer job is slowly starting to dwindle away. After spending money on food, going out, clothes, and whatever else you might buy, you check your account daily and shed a tear each time you do so.
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