School is fast-approaching and summer is ending far too fast. Soon we will replace our beach bags with backpacks and swap our bathing suits for winter coats. As we return to our respective cities in the next few weeks, it is natural to reflect on the summer we are leaving behind.
Did you work all summer? Skip work and spend time with friends? Land your dream internship? Have a horrible experience at an internship that was supposed to be great?
There are those of us who worked less and played more. Some of us went on the trip of a lifetime, while others stayed home for the summer. Maybe we spent hours at the beach or hours inside the office.
Perhaps we left some old friends behind for the chance to make some new ones. We finally shed our high school persona to emerge as new and more mature individuals. We may, however, have retreated back to who we used to be, in the company of our old friends.
Some of us met new people in new summer flings, finally mixing things up for once. Others went back to old flings, exes, past relationships. When in old familiar settings, it can be natural for us to revert to old habits and patterns of behavior.
When you look back on your summer, I hope you have the ability to say it was everything you could have asked for. This summer provided me with the incredible opportunity to intern on Capitol Hill. I had the chance to ask Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a question, meet House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, experience my first DC fourth of July, go to a Juicy J concert, spend hours by the pool, and even get to spend a little time at Siesta Key Beach back home. If you ask me, it was everything I could have dreamed for and then some.
The summer between our freshman and sophomore years of college is far different than summers past. Last summer, we were naive, nervous, and had no idea what to expect for the future. Now, we are completely prepared to return to our friends, our dorms, and our majors.
This summer was a transition period for us all, and as we leave it and our tans and flip flops behind, I am confident that we all couldn't be more ready to return for syllabus week.
