How you want it to be:

Summer is for happy people. Happy people love the sun tanning their skin, the warm sand beneath their feet, and a fruity cocktail or ice cold beer in their hands. There are an infinite amount of country songs about summer and they instantly put you in the right state of mind. Summer is all about no responsibilities and easy going lifestyle. We spend the entire year in school working our butts off in order to have a relaxing three months off. Your plan is to spend the entire season at the beach, whether you’re #blessed enough to live near sandy shores or not- summer spent at the beach is always the plan. All of April is spent day dreaming of the hot days spent on a boat with your friends or road tripping to the coast with a car packed with friends and coolers. Three months away from your best friends gets hard so you, of course, plan so many weekend trips to go on that there aren’t enough days in the summer to make it work. The build up to summer is high; so much to squeeze in a short period of time. But we, inevitably, truly think it will all work itself out. You'll be lounging by the pool with music blasting through the speakers and tanning oil nearby. Snacking on fresh fruit and grilling dinner outside on the porch, it doesn’t get much better than that. Summer is by far the best season and we never want it to end.

How it actually is:

This is not how you had planned these few months to go. Before you know it, you are already a month and a half in and summer is basically over. You try to get to the beach on the weekends but life sometimes (most times) gets in the way. Responsibilities? You have tons of them. College kids need internships so you probably spent all of spring semester and some of fall to send out dozens of internship applications, set up interviews, etc. and hopefully, you were granted one. This is great news… but before you know it, your internship is slowly taking over your life (god bless you if you have two, because that is a possibility in my near future). Not to mention, internships are rarely paid so if you are trying to save up and bring some cash back to school for those Monday- Sunday night outs during fall semester… good luck. Internships and a part time job… it is a lot to balance. Especially if you’re trying to spend some time in the sun. When you try to google “summer”, it automatically changes to “summer internships”. The real world begins to cave on you. You’re now (kind of) an adult and adulting is a serious thing. Your parents yell at you when you try to have some down time because you “party all year while at school,” which is a low blow. We party and pass all our classes, if your failing- you’re not doing it right. It takes a lot of hard work to have fun and be successful and in fact, I think we should be praised for that. And rewarded… with more summer fun and coconut rum cocktails.

The truth:

Summer is no longer carefree and a three-month long vacation from all responsibilities. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. We are getting older so jobs, internships, and life are all becoming more serious. Apply to internships, dozens if need be, and be grateful if you receive one because they are great experiences and extremely beneficial. All the effort you put in will pay off and will put you on a better path to landing that awesome job after graduation. One step closer to your own place, too… #goals. Work hard now so you can enjoy your life as an adult. And I promise you, you’ll still enjoy your summer vacation. No such thing as a crappy summer!

Good luck on final exams and see y’all in the Fall.