Well, as temperatures slowly rise and motivation completely plummets, it's safe to say that it's officially summer for most kids across America. Finals have ended, dorms have been packed, and you've moved back into your homes of high school rules and early curfews and home-cooked meals and the glorious lack of shower shoes. Being in college, something that really baffles me is the idea that wait, I don't want this year to end. Can't we stay a little longer? What?! Who knew I'd ever want to stay in school for longer than was absolutely necessary? You see, in college since we haven't been around many parents, we've kind of built our little "home away from home" families. You become close with these friends that you live within such close proximity. You learn their living habits, their favorite late night snacks, which boys they've been crushing on, when their moms have made them mad, how often they do their laundry, and even which dorm bathroom stalls are their favorites. It's so hard to have to split from these people you know so well and love so much to go back to the way things were before college. It's hard to reconnect with your old high school friends who can't totally relate to you because they didn't go to your college. It's hard to have to reside back under the watchful eyes of your parents when you've been independent for so long.

I'll tell you one thing I've learned: goodbyes suck. They're absolutely horrible. Who wants to separate themselves from people they love? I mean, throwback to when summer was actually something people looked forward to more than anything else in the world. Nowadays the word "summer" doesn't bring the same High School Musical "What Time Is It" thrill that it used to.

However, summer is a time for growth. As much as we hate to admit it, we need time to ourselves to grow and further ourselves as people, workers, and friends. It's a time to get yourself in order and realize the world does not revolve around your bubble of a college world; you start to recognize how the real world is and how it's time to slowly start making your place in that world. It's a time to actually get your body's sleep schedule back to normal and a time to train your stomach that no, it doesn't need another meal at 11 p.m. anymore.

Summer is also a time to look back on all your old pictures and videos laughing at the way things were at the beginning of the year; it's a great time to relive all the memories you made in your college experience thus far. It's the time to get random five-way FaceTime apps so you can talk with your whole squad of friends about how drama-free and boring your lives are back home as compared to your lives in college. It's okay to miss each other, and it's okay to be sad about it. That's what makes coming together that much more fun; no matter how long we're apart and what we experience while we're by ourselves, it just makes seeing each other that much more joyful. It's true when they say "absence makes the heart grow fonder" because boy do we have a lot of big hugs and "I missed you"s coming up soon! Above all else, we can be thankful that we have something we love so much — a place we've grown to call home and people we've grown to call family — that makes saying goodbye so hard. How lucky we are that in a few short months we'll be back again for another round together!