Ah, summer. My favorite and least favorite time of the year. Why is it simultaneously my favorite and least favorite time of year, you ask?

Summer is great because it’s two months to just unwind from a stressful school year and a time to have fun. Many college students spend most of their time working to earn money that they’ll blow within the first couple weeks of school starting. (Why do textbooks have to be so expensive?) The bad part is that the weather during these two months is ridiculously hot. If you’re from the South like I am, you understand what I’m saying when I say that most mornings you’re already drenched in sweat after the short walk from your front door to your parked car.

Summer is also a time for us to hang out with hometown friends we’re not able to see all year. I know I look forward to the spontaneous hangouts with friends when we’re swimming at someone’s house or playing Perpetual Commotion. But the saddest part about summer is not being able to see close friends because they’re out of state or staying on campus for the summer. Texts and FaceTime only gets you so much, but it’s nothing compared to quality, face-to-face time hanging out.

Most college students move back in with their parents after the school year ends unless they’re traveling abroad or staying on campus to take summer classes. Living at home is great. You get to eat free food, you don’t have to pay for cable or electricity and the best part is that you get to sleep in your own bed. The tricky part is navigating curfew and coming to an understanding of what chores need to be done when. It’s tough coming from a place where you decide what time you come home and what time you go to sleep to a place where you’re told you have to be back by a certain time. No, a curfew isn’t horrible but it’s hard to adjust to.

Unless you have a summer job, summer is a time to sleep all day and party all night. You’re able to catch up on all the sleep you lost throughout the year only to lose it all in the coming months. But if you sleep the entire day, you lose structure to your schedule. Being at school, you have a set routine every day. Being at home, you either have a part time job or no job at all so there is very little structure to your day. If you’re anything like me, no structure is nice at first but eventually drives you insane. It also makes it that much harder to put yourself in a routine once classes start in August.

I love being home for the summer. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. But as much as I love summer, I love all my out-of-state friends I’m not able to see and being on a college campus. Most of all, I love football season. And let’s be real, as soon as summer begins, you realize it’s that much closer to football season.

*Sigh.* Only a couple more weeks to go!