When the spring semester ends at the beginning of May, it seems like you have an endless amount of time before school will start up again in the fall. Classes won’t begin until the end of August, and you start a mental list of the fun things you’ll do all summer with your friends. You make plans to go to the beach every weekend and taking road trips with your family. And you imagine yourself with a solid tan by the time you have to go back to school.

My question is: where did my four month long summer go? I feel like I was just taking finals, and all of a sudden, I start classes next week. Instead of thinking about what fun plans I can make for the weekend, I have to go and buy 5-subject notebooks, number 2 pencils and the dreaded, hundreds-of-dollars worth of textbooks. Summer is practically early, and I feel like I barely got my feet wet at the beach. And my Irish skin is only faintly darker than when I started back in May.

Now, it’s not that I sat around all summer doing nothing but watching Netflix and eating pizza (well at least not every night), but my list of “things to do” has more things remaining than checked off. While I did travel to Tampa as soon as finals were over to see my brother graduate college, I never made it to New York City like I had wanted. And even though I went on a weeklong vacation at the end of June, I forgot to make plans to see any concerts with my friends. My summer was full of sunny weekends at my camp, but I still feel a pang of sadness as the end comes near.

While I’m excited to jump into junior year, I’m not exactly doing my happy dance as I watch the summer days dwindle. I’m trying to savor the last seconds before the stress of the semester begins, before I have to start to once again, to juggle classes and a part-time job while still trying to have a social life on the weekends. And I already have my last day of classes penciled in on my calendar.

But, I have to say, even though I’m not looking forward to the workload that comes along with taking six classes, I am excited for fall. It's my second favorite season, next to summer of course. Soon I’ll get to break out my boots (maybe find an excuse to buy a few new pairs), and my sweaters, and of course the pumpkin flavored food and drinks (I know, so basic). I’m looking forward to my family reunion in October, and pretending to be interested in football just to socialize, is one of my favorite fall pastimes.

Still, as great as fall can be, nothing will ever compare to soaking up the hot Sundays before jumping in the lake, making s’mores at midnight by the campfire, or laying by the water and staring up at the millions of stars in the sky. So, summer of 2015, I’ll think of you fondly, I’ll miss you dearly, and I’ll be counting down the days until I can see the first sunset of summer of 2016.