1. Thank God finals are over! No more work, time to relax!
This is the first stage of summer, when you have just finished your last final and could honestly not imagine doing another single minute of work--you would, at this point, start world war three before you could turn your brain back on. Fortunately, it is officially summer and you are looking forward to no work and all play for the next three months! You are beyond excited for vacation, a fun job, internship, or camp, and getting a much needed break from school.
2. OMG, I missed all my home friends and my family so much, tell me everything!
The second stage of summer is a euphoric, blissful time when you get to see all the friends and family you haven't seen in months. You are so excited to see them and tell them all about what was really happening in your snap stories--and what you couldn't put in your snap stories--for the last year of school. You have a huge reunion, listen to months' worth of gossip, and appreciate the people you still made an effort to see. It may not be everybody, or even very many people at all, but you are back with your childhood besties who saw you through your awkward stage. And all else aside, you have a minute of personal space, free laundry, home cooked meals, and, of course, your bed.
3. Wow, home is kind of boring, I miss my school friends...
It is now a few weeks into summer, maybe even a month and a half, and you are starting to miss constantly being surrounded by other people and constantly having something to do. At school, you fought for every minute of "me time" you could get, but now, you have more than you can handle, and you're starting to get bored. Your internship/job/whatever you are doing is not nearly as fun, or stimulating, as you thought it was going to be, and you miss the college atmosphere and your school friends. Do not get me wrong, you love your home friends too, but you actually have to get in a car to see them and when you are not all basically doing the same things (aka classes and clubs), you realize how hard it is to get together or find something fun to do.
4. When is school again? Yay, only a couple weeks left!
The fourth stage of summer, starting around the end of the second month, or just before, when you have long forgotten the horrors of school food and cramming for midterms and have officially gotten used to being around your home friends again. Only now that you have no dire urge to see them and catch up, you find yourself increasingly having "early nights" and no real need to leave your bed. That is, except to drag yourself to your ever-so-boring internship or job and counting down the days until you are done and heading back off to college. But it is all good, you are already buying new posters for your room, dreaming of not having to report back to your parents, and texting your school friends about how this month is going to fly by and you will be back before you know it.
5. Oh wow, I am actually going to miss my home friends... and my bed...
Now it is only a week or two before you head back off to school, and as excited as you are to finally get back to the crazy parties and far-too-large group chats, you realize that you have not actually done anything you intended to do this summer. You are not nearly as tan as you wanted to be, and you really did not indulge in the luxuries of your hometown enough.
As your home friends start to depart and go back to their own home away from home, you realize how much you love them and took them for granted this summer. "Make new friends but keep the old, some are silver and the other gold." Who the silver and the gold are have switched a plethora of times over the summer, and now you are thinking of the shining memories you have with your home friends, wishing you had seen them more, made more of an effort to see certain people, and how much you can count on your home friends.
You are reminded of how deeply you love them, and although you are not too sad because you really are excited to go back to school, you silently think about when the next time you will be home is. And no matter what you actually did in the last three months, you had gotten used to the rest and relaxation. You will proudly make an instagram post about how much you are going to miss summer... and your bed.
