Summer is a time to chill and relax; it is a time defined by doing activities in the sun and being around friends but if you spend your summer in school (like I am), it can get pretty tiring pretty fast. I feel that the good sides of summer are overstated and the bad sides don't get much light (get it?).

For many people who choose to make their summer about strengthening their resume or academics, it may be time well spent but it gets lonely. The campus is quiet and deserted and it is hard to find the courage to open up to people and engage with them during this time.

For me, I have always associated summer with a time of reflection. It is a quiet time to be completely comfortable in who I am and what path I am on. Summer is kind of a pause button on my usually rushed life and I can take this moment to think about who I want to be for the coming academic year and beyond that.

Summer has always been tinged with nostalgia in my eyes and therefore, becoming close to those around me is not a priority during this time.

I will admit that summer is hard if you are not accustomed to the change in the environment around you. Your friends might not be there with you and it is a time to make new friends and get out of your comfort zone.

One of the biggest things I had to figure out how to deal with was having new roommates.

I have been lucky (and if you know me personally, you really know how lucky) to have amazing roommates for my freshman year and continue with one of them for my sophomore year and probably the rest two years here so I have never had to start over, in terms of roommates. But this summer, I did not have a choice but to do that.

I would like to think that I make friends easy and I come off as a friendly person but to be completely honest, there are some mixed reviews there. Moreover, adjusting to living with people I did not know was something that I did not need to attempt to do for two years so I was scared that I did not remember how to do it or have the patience to do it.

I made an effort to go out with my roommates and find common interests and thus, we really clicked. 10/10 I would recommend. Coming back to your room to chill out with your roommates who you socialize with not too much or too less but just the right amount is literally what happiness is.

Apart from my roommates, who if you are reading this: you are amazing, I made an effort to talk to people in my classes and meet people who are just at UCLA for the summer, trying to understand and immerse themselves in American culture and figure out if they want to continue their studies in the subjects that they are attempting to do at UCLA. For the friends that I already knew, seeing you in the summer is like seeing another side of you and I'm glad that we got to do that.

I really benefited from continuously taking an initiative to talk to people because it is just delightful to meet new people and imbibing their worldview. Maybe you might not see them again because unfortunately, you both have different paths in life but the internet does a great job in keeping you in touch with the people you want to keep talking to, so really if that is your concern? That's not a concern anymore.

Having friends in the summer is like having a summer fling but you are both happy and it doesn't end badly and you still talk to each other so really, it is nothing like a summer fling. But it gives you similar amounts of excitement and exposure to new people. So, what are you waiting for? Go make those connections already.