This seems to be each college students newest endeavor: the dying out summer break. While we all still highly look forward to the summer, it is nothing like it used to be. Even compared to just a couple summer's ago it seems all to far away at this point. The good old days of just going to the beach and soaking in the sun, going to Six Flags because, well, you could, going to see all your favorite bands in concert, going to every single 4th of July festival and fireworks, and so many more things. These all seem to be distant memories at this point in our lives. Yes, this may seem a little dramatic, but still, we're growing up and these summer nights no longer consist of carelessness. These nights now consist of doing the reading and the homework for that summer class you are taking (or multiple).
This is now, finally, the time in our lives that many of us thought we were looking forward to. The entering into our chosen career field, such as internships, research studies, hands-on action, or shadowing. This is the point in time that we have to fully commit and decide what we want to do with the rest of lives, even though in reality we were expected to know this 3 years ago (because we all definitely knew by age 17 what we were destined to do forever, yeah right). This is the time where we hold multiple jobs just to pay for simple things like food and clothing, or maybe the bigger things now, like gas, a car, and phone bills. Our lives are becoming more and more real, but isn't this what we have been looking forward to since we were seven years old saying to our parents, "I want to be an (insert career) when I grow up". Or, some of us already had a 13 Going on 30 moment happening when we were preteens wishing away our adolescence so we could skip to being "30 flirty and thriving".
What we didn't know was the extent to which our "childhood" was over. The summers are no longer filled with spontaneous week long vacations, because there's always someone to ask before you can even think about leaving, perhaps your multiple bosses for the summer. Now we not only have assignment notebooks written all over in for the school year, but also for the summer days just to keep track of what assignment is due and when, because life gets so hectic. We're all wishing for summer days, the warmth, the sun, the fresh smell of flowers in the air, but really, now it consists of preparing for our future careers. This all so new and exciting and it is very much so worth all of the effort in the end, it just seems like a bummer to think about at this particular moment.
Things that don't change, however, as we get older and the summer is here consist of the warm days, the sun dresses, the nights out with the people we love, the bonfires, the s'mores, the fishing, the love in the air, the vacations, the sand, the sand volleyball, the laughter, and tan lines. The greatness of summer is still there, we just have to try harder to embrace it instead of stressing out about all of the other things we "should" be doing instead. Just remember, even while you're building yourself stepping stones to your dreams, you have to take a step back often enough to enjoy it and the hard work you put in and the calmness of what we've always known as summer. Even when we're grown up, have families and kids, it's still going to be just as important to maintain your happiness in your career as it is to enjoy the little things in life like you family, the smiles, the jokes, the hardships, because life is never easy, but it's worth it. (If for some reason your stress level is extra high one day, go watch a thousand puppy videos and your mood is guaranteed to be better)!
