Remember being juniors and seniors in high school dreaming of summer vacation? For most of us, it meant no responsibilities. You spent your entire summer laying on the beach or binge watching TV on your couch. You probably worked as a camp counselor or life guard at your town's lake and made stupid money to do nothing all day. You looked forward to parties with your entire grade where you could hang out with your crush outside of third period Algebra. Summer in high school was the best time of the year.
Now you're at UConn and spending your first or fourth summer back home, where you realize that summer in your twenties doesn't really mean the same thing as it used to.
1. Friends
You're definitely guilty of posting some sappy Rascal Flatts lyric with every picture of your friend group from high school around graduation about how much you'll miss each other. Then, you get into college and realize that true friends are only made once you're over the age of 18. You probably won't see them this summer unless you're from one of those towns in Connecticut that basically shipped their entire high school class up to Storrs.
2. Social Life
In most cases, your social life goes from 100 to zero once you haul your entire dorm room back into Mom and Dad's house. Within the first week at home, you start thinking, "What did I do before college? Did I really think bonfires with seven people or pool parties were fun?" No matter how much Nickel is like the Hunger Games and no matter how disgusting your favorite Friday night frat basement is, UConn offers much better alternatives than hanging out with what's left of your crew from high school.
3. Internships
What's harder than finding a table with plugs in Homer during finals week? Getting a summer internship. If you are one of the lucky ones, it's probably unpaid and will have you working countless hours for a resume paragraph that could potentially help you get employed post-graduation. Let's be real: nobody wants to be doing an internship when they could be lying on the beach all day.
4. Jobs
You spend your entire year pulling all-nighters for exams and spending your free time doing extracurriculars to make yourself the perfect fit for your dream job post-graduation. Then summer rolls around and you realize you're still weighing Froyo or waiting tables at the restaurant in your town where you have to serve everyone you know. You know that any money you thought you were going to save will be gone by "Week of Welcome."
5. Family
After all the phone calls from Mom all year wondering if you're getting enough sleep or having enough fun in between studying, you can't wait to go home and hang out with your family. Then, you get home and Mom probably calls you out for your ridiculous credit card charges from Ted's or the five pounds you put on from eating too much Wally's. If the couch is your destination of choice this summer, you can expect a fight with Dad about how you need to get up and do something with your life.
Moral of the story - summer in college is nothing like what it used to be. Let the countdown to fall semester begin.
