Classes are starting up again for almost everyone across the country—for college students, this means being inundated with information about move-in day after spending most of the summer hoarding a collection of boxes to take back to school. Or, if you’re a freshmen, you probably spent the summer amassing a gigantic pile of college “stuff” that you think you really need, only to realize in the first 20 minutes that you could have left that backup toothbrush at home because Wal-Marts exist all over the country, not just in your hometown.

But a few of us weren’t forced to spend the summer box collecting—instead, we stayed behind after the semester ended, watching the campus become a ghost town. For me, there was no dramatic car-packing and move-in day this year—at least not at the beginning of the new semester. Instead, my mega move-in day came a week and a half after spring semester finals, when I packed up my car and drove home, only to pack it all back up and drive back to do it all over again (this time in an apartment, not a dorm room. HUGE difference).

I spent the summer working at an incredible internship in Des Moines, which I’m continuing into the fall. Instead of having a dramatic move-in day, followed by a monumental first-day-of-classes-oh-no-I-have-to-be-responsible-again feeling at the start of the semester, I went to work at 8 a.m. on the first day of class like I’ve been doing all summer. On the first day of school, I only had one class, so it felt more like a continuation of summer instead of the start of something new.

Part of me misses that excited back-to-school feeling that I’ve seen a lot of the people around me experiencing—after all, it’s always great to step back on campus after being away for the summer. Instead, it all feels strange. I’ve been living across the street from a completely deserted campus all summer, and now it’s overflowing with people. Instead of that happy, excited, everyone’s-back-and-I-can’t-wait-to-see-them feeling, I have more of a where-the-heck-did-all-these-people-come-from feeling, and a slight I-miss-the-silence feeling when I hear people yelling in the hallway at 10 p.m.

I’m sure everyone who’s ever spent the summer in their college town would agree that it’s a little strange to be going back to school without the usual back to school feelings. But ultimately, it’s just another routine to slip into, and I’m sure I’ll be feeling the back-to-school vibes when I can’t see my desk anymore because it’s been covered by a mountain of books and homework. Because no matter what else changes, homework is always constant.