Ah, summer. For every college student, it is the six-letter word that also means freedom. As a second year college student, I will be heading home once again this summer to live with my parents, and while I'm relieved to be done with school, I'm also really sad to be leaving.
Like others who have finally settled in to college, I have made a lot of great friends this year, and I know that spending almost four months without them is going to be strange. There is something comforting about seeing the same people every day or week for a full academic year. Many of the people I have met are going home to their families, too, and it's just weird to realize we won't be seeing each other.
People say you can Skype or text to stay in touch, but it's not the same. There's nothing like laughing until you cry with a close friend, especially at midnight when you're both supposed to be working on homework. There's nothing like taking a study break for late night fast food and counting every precious second that you get to spend away from your books. These things do not carry over into digital interaction, and I'm going to miss them a lot.
And anyway, what's so great about home? While I will get to sleep in my childhood room and return to my summer job, I will also have to move back in with my parents. It is hard to show people who used to change your diaper that you are an adult now, worthy of a 12:00 curfew or sleeping in until the afternoon. Once again, I'll be living with someone who insists on my room being kept neat and tidy, and that's just a drag.
There's always the awkward transition period where old, hometown friends realize that I am once again in town and I have to get close to them all over again before being ripped away in the fall, just like last year and the year before. I always worry that when I do get home, my old friends will have found new friends, and I'll be left all alone just because I insisted on going to college somewhere far away.
What about my friends here? What will happen when we spend the summer apart? Will we be as close as we are now? Probably, but there's no way to know. As with high school, I wonder if my new college friends only like me because they have to see me so often.
As the year comes to a close and everyone around me rejoices to go home and be reunited with family, pets, and their childhood bed, I rejoice with them, but I also appreciate my time away at college more than I can ever explain, and I know that by the time school starts again in the fall, I will be more than ready to come back.
