As we slowly turn to the later side of August, we come to the bittersweet realization that long days of sun and sand are nearly behind us. "Back to school" commercials and the dorm areas of stores taunt us and make us wonder exactly where the past four months have gone. Thoughts of the upcoming school year both excite and worry us, filling our heads with thoughts of blaring alarms, late night study sessions, and consistent meals of Ramen. Why must summer come to an end?

And with the packing of our bags and the moving into our dorms, we say our final goodbyes to the season we wait all year for. A goodbye to the sun and the intense heat it brings that we long for on those frigid January nights. A goodbye to skies so blue and clouds so picturesquely fluffy they look as if someone had painted them above us. A goodbye to ice cream melting down our hands and arms, dripping onto our laps. A goodbye to sand stuck on every inch of our body, burning our feet as we run across it. A goodbye to the ocean, the salted cold body that transports our weightless bodies into an environment we can only experience this time of year, an environment so freeing and exhilarating and unlike anything we can experience year round.

We wave goodbye to countless hours of sitting, sitting without any real need or reason to move. We say goodbye to our empty schedules as we begin to load ourselves up with responsibilities, restrictions and reality. We wash the sunscreen off of our tan bodies and begin to watch the freckles fade away. We hide away our denim shorts, our bikinis, and our flip flops deep into our closets, hidden treasures we eagerly await to dig up in May.

We say goodbye to the carnivals, their neon lights and rickety rides distant and hazy in our memories. We say goodbye to the boardwalks, the greasy sugary foods and games that have us coming back year after year. We say goodbye to the lazy days by the pool, outstretched on chairs, basking in the sun like cats. We say goodbye to the songs of the ice cream truck as the anthem to our neighborhoods day after day. We say goodbye to our tiny burst of freedom for the year, and begin to lock ourselves down in our work again.

We say hello to our schools, our home-away-from-home that has comforted us and guided us through some of the most difficult moments of our lives. We say hello to familiar faces of friends and professors, eagerly waiting for routines to set in and for work to get done. We say hello to the changing of leaves, to our sweaters, jeans and boots, to the crispness in the air.

And most importantly, we say hello to being one step closer to our goals. Just as all good things must come to an end, the end of one good thing brings the beginning of something even better.