Summer vacation is finally here for those in college. We move out of dorms and into apartments, or even back home for a few months of rent-free living. For one whole week, we are free to do whatever we want, but only for that one week. After that, we are back to the stress of college and working. Summer internships take over, not lounging around on the beach. We laugh at our high school friends or younger siblings who are still in school, but cry inside because we don’t get the same freedoms they do. The freedom to do whatever we want for just a couple months is gone. We are preparing ourselves for the real world.

I remember telling myself that the summer between my first and second year would be my last “free summer” to do whatever I wanted. Which translated to sitting around on the couch binging whatever Netflix show was on. I told myself that the next summer I would have a summer internship and would be working to earn some money to actually be able to go out and do stuff. I wasn’t looking forward to having to actually be an adult, but I knew that it was coming.

Summer came and went and I enjoyed every second of it because I knew from then on, I wouldn’t have that much free time for a long time. October rolled around and I got my first job working at Disney. My weekends were spent working while my weekdays were spent in the classroom and working on homework. Free time became less and less as I had to figure out that pesky school and work life. I never understood stress until it was 1:30 in the morning and I was frantically trying to finish up some homework after working a 7-hour shift. Once I finally got into a grove, the fall semester was over and into spring we went. Then it was time to find a summer internship. I wanted to find the perfect one. I wanted to really get experience I needed and have an enjoyable time. I heard horror stories of how an internship was terrible and made the summer or fall semester feel like it was never ending. On the other hand, I heard wonderful stories about how they had an amazing time at their internship and had even been offered a job. So, I was slightly excited and slightly nervous for whatever internship I found. Luckily, I found one that seems like it will be a really good fit for me and will keep me busy this summer. As much as I love my relationship with my bed and Netflix, I know that I can’t make a living off binge watching Grey’s Anatomy, even though that would be incredibly awesome. I know that I need to work towards my career goals and get to a place where I want to be professionally. I don’t want to be a professional couch potato. So goodbye beach and hello office.