It’s here, the exact thing you have been dreading—the end of summer. August has blown through your life before you could even utter the words “watermelon sangria,” and, just like your second cousin who’s visiting from Colorado with an unconventional mole on his face, you just can’t avoid it. All good things have to come to an end, and summer is certainly no exception.
Wasn’t it just yesterday that school was ending? Don’t you feel like last week you were sitting in the library, cramming for an awful English final? How in the world did it already become the middle of August? Your mom keeps nagging at you about financial aid and your dad is pestering you about when you’re buying your school books. I’ll buy them when I’m ready, Father, get off my back. I’m watching "Gossip Girl" for the third time and this is clearly more important.
As much as you’d like to curl up in bed with Netflix, thirty comforters, and an air conditioning blasting at a below freezing temperature, you know that in the back of your mind the days have become slightly cooler and shorter. Some of us wasted our days on the couch, others feel they have worked the entire season away. Somewhere in that mix, there are people that had an amazing, fulfilling summer.
No matter how you spent the thick, hot days of the summer, there is a general consensus among most: No one wants August to end. It is the Sunday of the year. Next thing you know, it’ll be September and family visits will once again contain the questions of “what are you doing for the rest of your life?” and “where are you going to grad school?” Both very loaded questions, neither being something a college student particularly wishes to think about.
September means fall, and while that sounds great on paper—the oversized sweaters, apple cider, boots—it means responsibility and cold weather. It means the tans you worked so hard on achieving will fade, your hair will once again darken without the summer sun, and you’ll probably have to give up iced coffee before it gives your stomach frostbite. You know colder weather is looming on the horizon and you’re surely not ready for the awfully unglamorous act of digging your snowed-in car out of your university’s parking lot.
Summer has been so good to you. Your brain has been given a much needed rest and you could finally sleep until a reasonable hour. You got to see your home friends. When you saw your friends from school who live hours away, it made your reunion so much more special (just ask Instagram—you definitely posted a picture). Of course, you’re sad to see it go.
Then again, what makes summer so special is the fact that it comes and goes like a wisp in the air. If it was summer all of the time, the magic would fade. There would be no appeal in its arrival. None of your friends would praise you on how amazing your tan looks.
And, even though you don’t want to admit it, you actually really like school.
