When the month of May is coming to an end and summer is just around the corner, the anticipation and excitement for "summer break" is in full effect for college students.
A break from school, communal bathrooms, and dining hall meals, is so close and so needed. During finals week, this is our motivation to get us through. The extra hours of studying, late night dollar menu burgers, and early morning exams will soon be worth it when we're finally laying out in the sun somewhere.
We put in so much work all year as full-time students, at part-time jobs, and somehow make time for friends, activities, and (if we're lucky) ourselves. When the summertime starts to roll around, the idea is that we'll get a few months off to take a break and enjoy life however we please, but unfortunately, this fails to be true.
Summer break is not a vacation for the average college student. Maybe a few days of the summer months will, every once in a while, be enjoyed on the beach, by the pool, hiking through the outdoors, or simply enjoying the sunshine; but the majority of them won't be spent this way.
The majority of young adults who are on their summer breaks from their college education will spend this vacation time working as much as they can. Some students have one well-paying job, others have two or three minimum wage jobs, in order to make money to save for when they don't have the time to work during the busier months when they have classes. If they aren't working, chances are they're taking summer courses in hopes to cut costs in the long run by spending fewer years attending college.
Many people think summer is a college student's favorite time of year because they are free from classes, homework, studying, and exams. Even though it is nice to get away from these stressful things for a couple of months, there are many elements of summer that bring out new stressful situations.
After being away from home for so long and almost living by your own rules, it is difficult to adjust back to living under the same roof as your parents and siblings. It's strange when everyone goes to bed long before 2 a.m. and dinner isn't as simple as walking to the dining hall. Once you finally get back into the home life routine, part-time jobs come back into play.
The main point I'd like to make is that summer isn't always a "break" or a vacation. Summer is often times, for many students, a time to work and make money. With the dark cloud of college loan debt following students around, the only thing they can do is work whenever they get the chance.
Summer may be intended to give students a break from the hard work and stress that comes along with college life throughout the year, but it is rarely ever enjoyed this way.
