The first summer home after a year away at college is strange and exciting. After being at school all year and comfortably adjusting to “being an adult”, you pack all your belongings and move back home for four LONG months. At the end of the lengthy and challenging year at school, it seems like the greatest thing. The idea of summer, for most, brings along nostalgia of days at the pool or beach, picnics and barbecues in the backyard, long summer nights, and most importantly the promise of zero academic responsibilities.

Summer FINALLY arrives, you’ve lugged all your possessions home, and if you’re like me, promptly relocated them in the basement and pretended they didn’t exist. The first couple of weeks home are great! FREEDOM! No morning classes, no cafeteria food, no homework. You enjoy the simple pleasures of sleeping until noon and having someone to cook for you and do your laundry again. Everything seems perfect and carefree and nothing could ever go wrong.

However, after a couple of weeks of “living the dream” you start to pick up on some of the strange new feelings you have, now that you have one year of college under your belt. Summer feels different. You no longer want to just sit around and do nothing all day. You start to itch for something new and exciting to fill your day. Here are some ways summers during college are different than summers during high school.

Summer Is Long

• Unlike summer after high school, you probably got home in the middle of May. So even if you do absolutely nothing for three whole weeks, you really haven’t even made a dent in the summer. And if you’re like me you start to panic and realize your mom was right and you should have lined up a summer job ahead of time. So you run around begging stores to hire you.

You Actually WANT To Work.

• I know it might sound crazy but it’s true. Gone are the days when lounging in your pajamas and watching Netflix all day seems appealing (okay not really, that still rocks). But you do get bored very easily. When you were at college there was something to do every moment of every day and night. Without a job to make your summer days pass, you start to go a little stir crazy. Having a job ensures that you aren’t wasting all of your free time and you make some money too, which is always a good thing.

Your Relationship With Your Parents Is Different

• Your family dynamic has changed. After a year away from your parents, you act differently when you get back home. Maybe your parents treat you like more of an adult. Maybe you have a constant power struggle with them because you are used to doing whatever you want and never having to answer to anyone. Or maybe they lock you in your house and don’t let you leave because they missed you so much. After being responsible for yourself for nine months, it is strange answering to your parents again.

You Have Less Freedom

• You can’t just walk out of your house and go wherever you want anymore. If you want to do something you have to first ask for permission. You also cannot spontaneously spend the night at someone else's place without letting your parents know. Your family will freak out and file a missing persons report. You have to readjust to not being totally independent.

You Start To Think About Your Future

• If you’re lucky and you know “what you want to be when you grow up” thinking about your future can be exciting. But if you are like me and you have no clue, it can be terrifying. Even if you don’t know what you want to do, summer is a great time to figure that out. A great way to get hands on experience is to have an internship lined up for the summer. This takes some effort during the school year but if you make enough phone calls and submit enough resumes then you are most likely to get one. Another option is to do research for a professor at your college. Again, you would have to set this up during the year but research looks great on a resume, offers you a personal relationship with the professor, and helps you decide if you are interested in a certain field. Some people even take advantage of the summer and take a class or two or even more to fulfill requirements for their majors.

You Realize Who Your True Friends Are

• This one can happen without you even realizing it. You figure out who your true friends from home are and who you actually want to hang out with. Because face it, a lot of people you were friends with in high school were only your friends because you saw each other five times a week for four years straight. You no longer feel obligated to invite or hang out with the same people you did when you were in high school. You’ve made new friends, shared new experiences, and (hopefully) grown up after your first year of college.