You've just finished your last final. You feel like you're on top of the world. In front of you lays the beautiful land of warm weather and freedom from academic responsibilities: summer.
You arrive home. Your eyes sparkle with all the possibilities. All the books you can read just for fun. All the Netflix you can binge-watch. The land of lazy opportunity is fertile, and you are ready to reap the benefits.
But then, two weeks pass. Suddenly, you remember just how boring your hometown is. You remember that there's really nothing to do. You wish you could be back at school having fun with your friends, but without the schoolwork to do. You find yourself plugging in your phone to charge three times a day, as you run down your battery texting your best friends from school. Netflix has lost its charm. You try to binge-watch, but you can feel your eyes burning and your brains frying. You almost start to crave the intellectual stimulation of a class, of an insufferably boring passage of reading...maybe even, dare you think it, an essay.
You're bored. You're bored out of your mind. You thought summer in college was going to be amazing - no academic responsibilities, no summer reading like you had for the first thirteen summers of your academic career, and so much time to soak up the sun and warmth. But you were wrong. All summer in college is is counting down the days until you can go back to being with your best friends and going about your days however you please.
But then...August comes. You should be buzzing with excitement, even more so than you were at the beginning of summer. But instead, your excitement is tinged with panic. You can feel summer dwindling down with each second, and as each second ticks away, you can feel your carefree ability to waste your days doing nothing productive slipping away. As each second ticks away, you can feel your opportunity to wear summer clothes slipping away. Your brain becomes a battlefield of internal struggles, such as the following:
You want to go back to school to be with your friends...
...but you do NOT want to go back to doing work.
The crushing reality that in between all the fun and debauchery, you have to actually go to school.
You're super excited for all your classes...
...but the thought of doing nightly readings, writing essays, and taking tests makes you want to cry.
If you could go back to school but without that whole "doing work" thing, that would be great.
You want to wear fall clothes...
...but you don't want it to actually get cold out.
Can I wear my sweaters and boots in 90º heat without sweating buckets? Can that be a thing?
You can't wait to get back to partying...
...but you can't help but think of the impending stress of school.
Ya know, that other 10% of what college is all about.
You crave the independence of living on your own, answering to no one, and going about your days as you so please...
...but you know that the dining hall food is nowhere near as good as the food at home.
Almost gives you indigestion just thinking about it.
But even though you'll miss the freedom from responsibilities, perpetual relaxation, and warm weather, you know deep down that you've had plenty of summer. After all, at the beginning of the summer, you were dying to go back. Deep down, you know that you are only sad about summer ending because it is ending, and you only truly miss something when it's almost gone. Although you will miss the days of relaxing with Netflix and books (that you actually want to read) and feeling free from the weight of academic stress, you know that all that nostalgia will float away when you get back to your favorite place on earth, living it up with your favorite people in the best years of your life. Stressing about essays and eating dried out grilled chicken four nights a week are but small prices to pay for all the joy and happiness you get from being back at school.
