I remember when summers used to be about relaxing and having fun — days at the beach, ice cream cones and bike rides, trips to amusement parks. We believed that we worked hard during the school year and that we earned that two to three-month break before school was back in session. Summer vacation was, well, about having a vacation.
Not so anymore. Starting in the last few years of high school, and especially now in college, the pressure to do something in the summer has risen. I am only a freshman, yet I have friends who are interning at brand-name companies, friends who are working at startups, friends who are doing research in universities in other countries. Taking the summer off and going back home to be lazy and do nothing is frowned upon. When “What are you doing this summer?” is met with “I don’t know yet, to be honest,” they pause, unsure of how to proceed. They had expected something brilliant, something worthwhile. How could you not know?
I, too, was swept up in this panic. I had applied to research abroad programs in the fall and winter, but they said that their programs were full already. I had applied to be a TA for a summer program I had been part of in high school, but they did not get back to me in time. With deadlines for summer housing and for research funding applications fast approaching, April found me in panic mode. I didn’t want to be someone whom everyone looked down on for choosing to do nothing over the summer but relax. Last summer, I hadn’t done anything, and I was determined to spend this summer differently.
This story, I suppose, has a happy ending. I did end up with a position as an undergraduate researcher at the Mechatronics Research Lab at MIT, doing work relevant to my major. I am excited about the research, and I think I will learn a lot from working this summer. But I realized that even if I hadn’t found a job here in Cambridge, if I had just ended up going home for the summer, I would have been OK.
I have a friend who is flying back home for the summer. When asked what he was going to be doing there, he simply said that he didn’t know and that he would figure it out when he got there. His calmness surprised me. I wondered why he, too, didn’t feel pressured to have an internship under his belt, just like everybody else. His words made me nostalgic for the hazy summers of the past.
Summer is about doing what you love, what you didn’t have time for during the craziness of the school year. You shouldn’t feel pressured to do anything just because other people expect you to. There’s nothing wrong with not having a snazzy internship lined up for the summer. MIT is hard, and you know what? We do deserve a break from work.
Just because you’re not working this summer doesn’t mean that you aren’t doing something worthwhile. And if you do get an internship or a research position, do it because it’s something that you are excited about, something that will expand your mind and your horizons — not just because you want something to show on your resume. Embrace the true meaning of summer: be adventurous and have fun.
I’ll be spending the summer doing research. But I’ll also be spending it exploring Boston and Cambridge, learning to cook for myself, reading, making art, making memories with friends.
When people ask me what I’ll be doing this summer? I have an answer now. I’ll be enjoying myself, and I’ll be having fun.
