1. Trying To Fix Your Sleeping Pattern
Finals week is over. No more all nighters, no more coffee, no more papers and/or tests. You’re home sweet home, with dark circles under the eyes that have been glued to a laptop screen or textbook for the past week or so, and you can finally sleep. That is, if you could fall asleep at a proper time and not 5 am.
2. Devouring All of The Food
You eat everything and anything in the fridge, simply because you can. A walk to the fridge requires less effort than the walk to the nearest dining hall. No disrespect to the dining halls, but come on. No more time restrictions. You get to decide when breakfast, lunch, and dinner is. No more lunch rush between your two classes. No more “three swipes a day.” When you eat your grandmother’s food for the first time in months, you’ll wonder why you left.
3. Missing Your Friends
They might live across the country so get ready to spend a good chunk of your summer pining over the people you used to see everyday. Instead of sharing experiences and being able to reminiscence about the prior’s weekends adventures, you guys have to tell each other how the summer you’re spending without them is. It kinda sucks.
4. Thinking About School
You’re stuck between missing school to the point that you want to go back, or enjoying home so much that you don’t want to return to school. You’re so used to being at school. Is being home supposed to be a return to normalcy? Your school ID and old textbooks are collecting dust. You think about what you want to pursue after college, how to go about it, and maybe freaking out in the process. Summers are the perfect time for existential crises.
5. Trying to Make Plans (or more accurately named, Being Told No)
This is the big one. It's so easy to make plans in school because you never have to say these infamous words: “I have to ask my parents.” Unless you have prior engagements, it’s so easy to up and go. At home, there’s planning involved. Remember that day trip you took to a different city? Yeah….that’s not happening at home. Remember the times you came home at 2 or 3 am? Not happening either. The independence that you’ve had for the past eight months or so? It only lasts 8 months, because when you come home for the summer for about four months or so, things are different. Personally speaking, this was the biggest difference I experienced.
6. Book List and School Shopping Season
Wow, the summer really flew by, and you’re not ready to go back to school! You’ve gotten the booklist for your classes but you haven’t ordered anything yet (since you might drop like two of them anyways). You roll your eyes at the prices and think, “Why is College so damn expensive?” Clothes aren’t packed, you haven’t made your yearly trip to Target where you buy everything you need (from snacks, to medicine, to body wash, to random room decorations). Those JCPenney's and Staples commercials? Anything that reminds you of school quickly approaching? The bane of your existence. Your back to school countdown is ticking, but you’re not ready.
7. Internal Conflict
Do you really wanna go back? You spent most of the summer being excited for the next school year, missing your freedom, your friends, the opportunities, but now school is approaching way too fast. You’re going to miss the people at home a lot more than you thought you would. Time really doesn’t slow down for anyone, you realize. But you can do it. You’ve done it before and you can do it again.
*Bonus Tips to the incoming first-years who may be reading this*
You'll be experiencing some of this to a certain extent. That adjustment period will definitely be an experience. Take advantage of the opportunities on campus. There’s always something to do on and off campus; you just have to find it. They’re good distractions. Call your parents when you have the time. You’ll be okay.
