I was lucky enough to finish finals very early in May and have almost an entire month to myself before having to start my internship at the beginning of June this summer. As I tried to enjoy my final days of lying around doing nothing, and sleeping in all day long – I reflected on my final days of absolute adolescent summer freedom.

I realized quickly that the beginning of my internship this summer would mark the end of the “summer break” I had come to cherish over the 16+ years of traditional schooling I have lived through. When we were young, summer break was a three-month period (sometimes more or less depending on the school), where you had absolutely no responsibilities. The summers of yester-year were for laying out at the pool, a break from classes and homework, and limitless time to spend with your friends and family. The air was warm and the weeks schedule was free, and when you were young and summer was a time of no cares or obligations – it was a magical three months.

Things have quickly changed however, and what was once a time of unadulterated fun has been replaced with adulthood. In the place of free time came work experience, resume builders, money needed to do things (when did the world become so expensive?) and the expectations that come with being a fully actualized and functioning member of society. Instead of spending your days by the pool, your calendar is sun screen smudge free, and is instead inside the air conditioned office you are spending your weekdays in.

If you thought that this in itself was bad – this whole growing up thing… it gets worse. I realized the other day that the little amounts of childhood I was still holding onto – this idea of freedom associated with summer is soon going away for good. My parents always warned me, and I never really listened – and now I wish I had maybe appreciated the time I had left before it was too late. After this next year I will have graduated college, and with that comes the expectation to join the “real world.” This means summer is no longer a concept synonymous with “freedom” because the weekends become your freedom and otherwise you live your life working and attending happy hours.

I know this depiction of adulthood seems pretty bleak, and I guess in some ways it is, but the beautiful and equally scary thing about life is that there is great things happening around us all the time and unless we stop and appreciate what we have now, we may never realize just as I didn't with my “summer vacations,” how good I had it until it’s gone.

While I will miss my summer, it will never be completely gone, just different. The summer will turn into opportunities that adulthood provides – and into memories that with time will fade into new ones, just as those three months of complete freedom had when I was a kid.