The end of the school year is coming up. Finals are fast approaching, and the supplies you brought back to school for the second semester are probably dwindling down to the last granola bar. Everyone living on-campus or out-of-state will pack up dorm rooms and head home for the summer months. You'll get to spend time with family and friends who you hardly see anymore, and you'll have more time to relax since you won't have any tests/quizzes/papers due weekly. But going home also means getting a summer job to be able to afford school for next year. It means leaving the lifestyle that you've perfected living over the last eight months or so.
Going home this summer will mean job hunting for work that will last a couple of months because-- let's face it-- money doesn't grow on trees. You'll need cash for food, supplies, and those ridiculously expensive textbooks for next semester. Your dreams of a summer spent only catching rays on the beach is sadly thrown away as the reality of needing a job sets in. Now, working a summer job isn't always bad. Depending on where you're hired you could be building relationships and opportunities for yourself in the future, especially if you've gotten a job in the field you're studying. Making connections with people is a great thing, so when you're thoughts drift to how much fun you could be having travelling all summer, just remember that you're preparing yourself to be successful in the future.
Staying at home this summer may also swap the amount of time you spend with your friends versus with your family. While at school you spend just about every day with your friends, and probably a minimal amount with your family. Now that you're home for the summer, the days spent joking around with your friends become fewer and the time spent with your family increases. This can be a good thing; I mean, distance makes the heart grow fonder right? Spending time with your family will allow you to reconnect after being at school for so long. Also, time away from the friends that filled every hour of your life at school will make you appreciate them more when you're with them again.
I am both anxious and excited to go home this summer. Once my last exam is taken I will load up my sedan with all of the belongings that have gotten me through the school year and make the eight-hour long road trip back home. Yes, I may not see my friends every day, but we have phones and the internet so not all is lost. Yes I will be working, but it will provide me with new contacts and experience for the future; plus, I can still make plans and have fun when I'm not on the clock. I'm excited to spend some time with my family; I know not everyone feels this way but I hardly see them anymore, so I'm looking forward to the couple of months I'll get to spend with them. There are a lot of pros and cons involved with going home for the summer, but more than likely it will be another life experience that we'll look back on and appreciate.
