We are always so excited when school ends and summer arrives. Going to the beach, hanging out with friends, and lots of sunshine always make us look forward to the three month season. We sit in uncomfortable desks during the last month of school dreaming about what we are going to do over the summer. Creating bucket lists and making plans fill our time and fuel our procrastination. But once summer arrives, things kind of fall apart. Summer is always an exciting adventure, but it also seems to be the quickest season full of working to make money to survive the other seasons.
After devoting so much time to school work, I want to take some time to just relax and do nothing. So there goes at least a week of my time. Once that's over, it’s time to get to work and make money so I can continue going to college. Now my time is devoted to working five days a week. When I get home from work, I eat, maybe watch a few episodes of some show on Netflix, and then I go to bed. The next day I just do the same thing. My days off often turn into days of doing errands or just sitting around because I’m too tired to do anything else. Not that working is that bad; I love my job, and I don’t mind working that much. It’s just that I wish I had the chance to actually get out and do something big with my friends.
Although I have my friends from high school around me now, I miss my friends from college. Summer break means months of being away from the people I spent nine months with. It’s not just having a few classes together or eating lunch together every so often. I spend basically every day surrounded by these friends. Being away from them is really hard.
All I can say is that summer is going by way too fast, and I haven’t had very many moments to make the most of it. I’ve been home for almost three months and it feels like it's only been one. I leave for college in a little over a month. It has gone by so quickly that I can’t keep up.
We see in movies the fun summer romance or a summer-long vacation, but that’s not how it usually is. I haven’t had a summer off in years, and this summer is no different. I might have hung out with friends once or twice, gone to the movies a few times, and experienced Electric Forest, but that is not enough.
What happened to a summer full of beach days, shopping trips, and sleepovers? It used to be nothing all day long. Reading books, being with friends, watching movies, and eating a ton of food was how I usually spent my day. My friends and I would spend more time together in one summer than we would spend during the rest of the year. Now we are struggling to find a day when we both don’t work. Getting together after work becomes hard because we're so tired after working all day that we don’t want to move once we sit down.
But I do know that during next month I have, I will make sure to make the most of it. I will go to the beach at least once. I will try to get a decent tan—not just burn to a crisp. I will make time to hang out with my friends because in a month I won’t be able to see them as easily. I will attempt to check off my entire bucket list.
Summer has always been my time to unwind and take a break from essays, confusing assignments, and uncontrollable stress. Although I seem to always be working, not having homework is so nice. No matter how much I complain about how bad my summer was, because I didn’t really have a summer, I will always love my summer time. I will always be sitting at the edge of my seat the weeks before school gets out just thinking, “Why can’t it be summer yet?” At least I can for a few more years. My summer breaks will soon be gone, so I will make the best of them while I can. I suggest that you do too.
