As I quite literally ran out of my last final and began to revel in the mental peace of being safely at home free from any immediate responsibilities, the last thing I was thinking about was how much I was going to miss anything about Villanova- except for my friends I quickly realized I can no longer function properly without. It wasn’t until I became a 9-5 working gal with an internship in Center City Philly that I began to experience the nagging FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) that resulted from being so close, yet so far from most of my friends who are stuck at school for the summer.

Living in Stanford Hall freshman year meant that instead of having cute, close-knit groups of normal friends on my floor, I quickly grew close to the random athletes I happened to run into around the dorm during the first month of school. This also means that my closest friends are at school much longer than us NARPs (non-athlete regular people). Football, volleyball and both men and women’s basketball have summer practice and classes, so they are at school virtually all year. Having friends on all of these teams, I was never jealous of this until I transformed into a responsible young adult.

This transformation forces me to resist the temptation to Uber up to Nova for the night and go out, something I would have easily been O.K with if I wasn't aware of what an amazing opportunity having an internship this early actually is. While my friends are able to enjoy the last sacred nights before a certain spot on the Main Line that may or may not rhyme with “baloneys” closes forever (*sobs*), everyone else at home has to watch them appear to have the time of their lives through Snapchat and Instagram Stories.

While it is easy to get caught up in a jealous spiral, every weekend as I scroll through my Snapchat I remind myself how important summer break is for both my mental and physical health. Freshman year was full of learning experiences, one of the biggest lessons being learning when to exercise the maturity of recognizing priorities. FOMO is ~so~ real, but remembering what is really important at the moment is too! While it is a sad time for "baloney's" enthusiasts everywhere, hopefully the Main Line will surprise us youngins with a new spot that we’ll be able to grow into like this year’s graduates were able to over their four years at Villanova.